Another takeaway message I get from this post is that it's important for BAE to remain independent during the completion of the milestones.

So perhaps to alleviate the concerns of posters who wonder why BAE hasn't signed a deal yet (if POET is so important) it's likely because they need to remain a "3rd party" and not a partner for their work to be considered "independent" from an outsider's point of view. It's true that POET has written about BAE as a partner in past CPs, but they don't any longer, and I now feel they want the results to be separate from the POET lab for validity.