Scalable Neural Interfaces: Opportunity seeds
Opportunity seeds support ambitious research aligned to our opportunity spaces. We’re looking to challenge assumptions, open up new research paths, and provide steps towards new capabilities.
Can we transform our understanding of neurological disorders by interfacing in new ways, at scale, with the human brain?
We launched a call for bold ideas within the Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space, offering to support projects with up to £500k each.
This seed funding call is now closed.
Selected R&D Creators will be announced in the coming weeks. Click below to receive updates on funded projects and follow their progress.
What's in scope?
+ Ideas that sit within the Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space. By this, we mean your proposal should show how your idea either aligns with or challenges the assumptions of the Summary, Beliefs, or Observations in the opportunity space;
+ Ideas that could change the conversation about what is possible or valuable;
+ Ideas that range from early stage curiosity-driven research through to pre-commercial science and technology.
What's out of scope?
+ Ideas that are within scope of the Precision Neurotechnologies programme;
+ Ideas that are undifferentiated or are likely to happen without ARIA’s support;
+ Commercial or close-to-commercial stage products.
There is no minimum length for a proposed project but the maximum length is three years.
Who are we looking to fund?
We welcome applications from the entire R&D ecosystem. We’re keen to hear from early career entrepreneurs and researchers, and those from a broad range of sectors and backgrounds.
We care more about your idea and intrinsic motivations than we do about your CV.
What budget and timeline can you propose?
We provide funding from £10k up to £500k per project, inclusive of VAT (where applicable) and all associated costs (both direct and indirect).
There is no minimum length for a proposed project but the maximum length is three years.
Want to know more about the types of projects we’re keen to see?
Programme Director Jacques Carolan has shared his vision for the opportunity space + example projects for inspiration in a piece for ARIA’s Substack.
Meet the programme team
Our Programme Directors are supported by a Programme Specialist (P-Spec) and Technical Specialist (T-Spec); this is the nucleus of each programme team. P-Specs co-ordinate and oversee the project management of their respective programmes, whilst T-Specs provide highly specialised and targeted technical expertise to support programmatic rigour.
Jacques Carolan
Programme Director
Jacques is an applied physicist and neuroscientist. Prior to joining ARIA as a founding Programme Director, he was a Discovery Fellow at UCL and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at MIT. Jacques’ work involves applying the principles of physics and engineering to create next-generation, scalable tools that aim to radically change our understanding of the brain and ultimately be used to repair it.
Tom Yates
Programme Specialist
Tom’s background is in management consultancy and defence technology, having spent three years driving operational improvements in large companies at Newton Europe and a year deploying autonomous sentry equipment in overseas bases with Anduril Industries. Tom supports ARIA as an Operating Partner from Pace.
Gillian Koehl
Technical Specialist
Gillian, a bioengineer, is passionate about advancing health through neurotechnology. She brings expertise in neuromodulation product development and biomaterials from her time at Blackrock Neurotechnology and Imperial College London.