Opportunities after Project Finance

I've been working in project finance for a full 2 years now and I want to get into M&A. I have a strong interest in companies within the STEM fields and would love to join a team that has anything to do with that general area, whether it be new tech, aerospace, physics. I really think the field of finance needs to focus more on long term returns rather than the feasibility of realizing returns within our own lifetimes. A lot of great companies and projects fail to get funding due to the uncertainty of their success and while I understand that returns are everything within M&A, the returns on certain lucrative and speculative investments that may yield in 60 - 100 years could be worth the investment with todays money. Overall I want to see where people from project finance end up at and what sort of opportunities are available, within the interests I have just mentioned, or outside of it. Any insight is greatly appreciated.