There is growing awareness amongst some of those in the LENR field that the years since '89 spent hanging on the coat-tails of academia and striving for respectability via peer-reviewed publication have ended in failure when measured by conventional standards. For this realisation we can thank Rossi, who whatever you think of him has raised the profile of LENR and brought in new younger workers and also new funders ( new = nothing to do with IH). For this reason alone, I think (and expect/hope) we might see some interesting developments before 2020.
One possible reason that may have contributed to LENR not being sucessful in gaining traction with academia in its effort to gain respectability is the deeply flawed and simplistic theory put forth that was a insult to the experience and intelligence to those in professional science.