ARIA is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs which could benefit everyone.
Many of society’s most important advances have stemmed from those with the foresight to pursue new capabilities that most believed to be unattainable.
ARIA empowers scientists and engineers with the resources and freedom to pursue those breakthroughs.
Many will fail to meet their target, but their efforts will inspire the next generation. Those that do succeed will generate massive social and economic returns.
Find out more about our approach.
ARIA’s Programme Directors are scientists and engineers with diverse fields of expertise and a range of experience across industry, academia and government.
Learn more about what they’re working on.
Angie is a plant biologist, focused on investigating the responses of crop plants to environmental stresses, such as drought and extreme temperature. Most recently, Angie was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
Davidad was a Research Fellow in technical AI safety at Oxford. He co-invented Filecoin, has led an international neuroscience collaboration, and worked as a senior software engineer at Twitter.
Gemma is an Assistant Professor of Medical Therapeutics and Head of the Neuro Optics Lab at the University of Cambridge – focusing on developing non-invasive brain monitoring in real-world environments.
Jacques is an applied physicist and neuroscientist and is a BBSRC Discovery Fellow at the UCL. His work involves applying the principles of physics and engineering to create tools that aim to radically change our understanding of the brain.
Jenny is a Professor of Vision Science at Newcastle University focused on insect stereoscopic depth perception, developing a new stereoscopic vision test for children, and using optical coherence tomography retinal scans to detect neurological disease.
Mark is a Professor of Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Technology at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on energy conversion and green fuel production and he is co-founder of a spin-out in the green hydrogen space.
Sarah is a Professor of Biomedical Physics at the University of Cambridge. Sarah leads a team using optical imaging technology to monitor tumour evolution and support earlier cancer detection.
Suraj was co-founder and CTO of Sync Computing, a startup optimising the use of modern cloud computing. Prior to that, Suraj worked at Intel Corp, helping transition silicon photonics technology from an R&D effort into a now >$1BN business.
Our success is shaped by one question: when the children of the UK grow up, how will their lives have been transformed by ARIA’s work? Whether that’s a life-changing technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.
To get there, we’ll need to relentlessly focus on long-term impact over easy wins. The journeys to the greatest science and technology breakthroughs have always combined a seemingly unattainable vision with resilience in the face of setbacks. We’ll need to embrace experimentation and intentional changes of course. As we do, we’ll generate new ideas and uncover new paths forward.
Above all: we’ll need to support bold researchers with the foresight to look beyond what exists today to the breakthroughs we’ll need tomorrow.