Writer/Supervising producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach reveals (note that this is a summary of the spoilerish things he revealed): You have not seen the last of Dharma, but it's going to be a little while before you find out a little bit more. The Dharma Initiative was a communal research facility on the island. A lot of scientists and free-thinkers got together to do a lot of different kinds of research: psychiatry, zoology - and remember that with the zoology of the film you saw some polar bears. It's possible there were some animal aggression studies going on there, as well as human psychology experiments and a whole variety of other things. The Dharma Initiative was founded by two peacenik Grad students who were trying to get to the bottom of a lot of mysteries about human behavior. There are six bunkers on the island, and they were devoted to a lot of different kinds of research. That's going to open up a lot of different avenues for us to tease you with what the kind of research was, and how it's evolved now that the Dharma Initiative seems to have fallen into disrepair. A lot has happened on the island and the Dharma Initiative is just the tip of the iceberg.
Source: The Official Lost Magazine, Issue 2, Jan/Feb 2006
