Paste this code immediately after the opening tag:

Activation Partners

Empowering talent and supporting science translation across our opportunity spaces

Breakthroughs require the capabilities to explore speculative science and translate into world-changing capabilities.

ARIA’s mission is to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. To fulfil this mission, we must ensure those breakthroughs translate into widespread impact – by creating the conditions that ensure discovery doesn't get stuck in a lab, but makes real social and economic impact. 

One way we’re doing this is working with Activation Partners – partners whose activity sparks latent ideas, empowers talent, supports new ventures, and provides insights and connectivity across the opportunity spaces we’re exploring – and the new ones we have yet to shape.

Shaping our next cohort

Since launching the call for our founding cohort in May 2024, we’ve worked with nine partners to build bespoke translational infrastructure and to activate talent in the UK. Ahead of our search for cohort two, we reflected on what led to our Activation Partner experiment and our learnings so far.

Building on the early successes of the first cohort, we’re looking to double-down on supporting the translation of frontier R&D from ARIA’s opportunity spaces through programmes supporting our research areas in everything from talent pipelines, engineering support to organisation building.

In addition, we’re looking to build on the insights from our AI Scientists initiative by expanding the scope of our Activation Partners to include the application of advanced AI capabilities to R&D, such as AI for Science and AI Scientists.

We're excited to share our early thinking for the second cohort of Activation Partners and ask for your feedback:

Read the concept note and share feedback

Sign up to hear when the call goes live

Aplogos

Meet our Activation Partners

Our founding cohort of Activation Partners are working alongside us to further embed science entrepreneurship across our work, helping spark latent ideas, empower talent, support new ventures, and provide insights and connectivity across the opportunity spaces we’re exploring – and the new ones we have yet to shape.

Discover our partnerships

These partnerships have already increased our researchers’ speed and ambition, driving impact through multiple approaches – from access to frontier capabilities in translational support, all the way through to bespoke engineering services.

Read about the learnings from our first year

Featured insights

A group of people watching a talk at the 5050 Cohort 1 kick-off event
30 January 2026

Backing scientists to build world-changing companies

Apply for the third cohort of the 5050 programme from Fifty Years

Read more
A fireside chat with Maja Wojtynska and Ilan Gur
28 November 2025

Seeding new AgTech ventures with Nucleate UK

How Nucleate UK and ARIA are working together to drive impact beyond the lab

Read more
A panel at a Thursday Gathering with Convergent Research and ARIA to launch the FRO Founder Residency.
30 October 2025

Venture Café UK gathers momentum across the country

After a successful launch, Venture Café is coming to Manchester and Edinburgh

Read more