Manufacturing Abundance
Ages of human history are defined by materials that transformed societies and mark breakthroughs in mastery over matter. Rather than a single material, the next age will be defined by our ability to assemble molecules into bespoke solutions for today’s challenges and unlock sustainable abundance.
What is an opportunity space?
Opportunity spaces are areas of research that we believe are ripe for breakthroughs. They are defined by our Programme Directors, and must be highly consequential for society, under-explored relative to their potential impact, and ripe for new talent, perspectives, or resources to change what’s possible.
Core beliefs
The core beliefs that underpin this opportunity space:
We will assemble limited sets of available molecules into a limitless range of functionality, without cost to planetary health.
Programmable polymers will construct materials, from the nanoscale to the macroscale, with structures that deliver tailored performance with unprecedented accuracy.
Ubiquitous clean energy will unlock a new manufacturing paradigm and, in turn, be catalysed by it: cost-competitive, precise performance arising from structure (vs. composition) and stochastic (vs. deterministic) assembly.
To unlock ubiquitous manufacturing, we’ll need a new biotic-abiotic tech stack that lets us programmably assemble matter like software → creating resilient societies, unleashing innovation at scale, and shrinking lab-to-market cycles from decades to days.
Read the programme thesis: Universal Fabricators
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Materials have defined ages of human history - but it is breakthroughs in manufacturing processes that made them cheap and abundant enough to transform societies.
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The next age will not be defined by a single material, but by our ability to mass produce a practically universal range of functional materials to solve bespoke problems.
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This is achievable if we can discover processes to produce programmable ‘hierarchical nanocomposites’, whose superior performance comes from their intricate, highly ordered internal structure across multiple scales, like natural materials such as bone and bamboo.
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This programme would harness advances in AI and molecular manipulation (biological and synthetic) to develop a ‘universal fabricator’ – an integrated hardware-software platform that rapidly discovers and develops processes for the production of hierarchical nanocomposites.
If you're interested in forming a multidisciplinary team in order to apply to this programme, there's an option in the thesis feedback form to register your current and missing capabilities – we’ll then be in contact to help facilitate teaming.
Meet the programme team
Our Programme Directors are supported by a core team that provides a blend of operational coordination and highly specialised technical expertise.
Ivan Jayapurna
Programme Director
Ivan joins ARIA from the University of California, Berkeley, with a PhD in materials science and engineering. While studying, Ivan co-led several tech spinout efforts, was twice funded by the National Science Foundation I-Corps, and co-founded a technical consultancy for biotech startups.
Alex Smith
Programme Specialist
Alex is a project management professional with experience in complex transformations. He recently streamlined national public service infrastructure for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and has led strategic initiatives at the London School of Economics, including delivering programmes, establishing governance and replacing legacy systems. Alex supports ARIA as an operating partner from Pace.
Gergo Bohner
External Technical Advisor
Trained in biotechnology, neuroscience and ML/AI at UCL and Cambridge, Gergo has contributed to a diverse array of scientific, industrial and policy fields, including helping to improve the NHS and shape the UK’s Covid policy. As Trisk Bio’s former CTO, he brings 5 years of experience in integrating hardware, software, and biology to help to scale the next foundational material process.
Aayush Chadha
Frontier Specialist
Aayush works alongside the Programme Directors to scope out emerging areas of technology that can shape current and future ARIA programmes. He previously spent a year as a founder in residence at Entrepreneur First working on neuromodulation, materials for computing, batteries for electric aviation and stroke therapeutics. He also has a PhD in Nanosciences from the University of Manchester.
Join our team
We are hiring a Technical Specialist - Programmable Materials Processing to help shape and deliver a bold programme of research in this space.
Application deadline: 9 November 2025
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