ARIA was created to be bold and agile, focusing on long-term transformation rather than quick wins. In our first year, we have built a strong foundation supporting that mandate: building a dedicated team, robust operations and infrastructure, and developing a new approach to funding R&D aimed at catalysing breakthroughs.
Over the course of our first year, we developed seven opportunity spaces – areas we believe are ripe for discovering new technologies that seem intractable today but could prove critical for the UK long-term. These spaces span climate science, neurotechnology, AI and more. From these opportunities spaces, we launched our first two funded programmes – Scaling Compute and Safeguarded AI – and first set of opportunity seed awards in Nature Computes Better.
Throughout this period we have prioritised engagement with experts across the R&D ecosystem. Through workshops, public calls for feedback, and open solicitations, we’ve invited input to help us consider different directions and surface new ideas – on the shape of our research programmes, as well as ARIA’s approach and operations.
Over the last quarter, we published our final set of programme theses, outlining our ambitions to advance the frontiers of neurotechnology, robotics, and climate monitoring. As we drive towards turning those ambitions into reality, we selected the first round of R&D Creators (recipients of ARIA funding) in our opportunity space Nature Computes Better and launched seed funding in Scoping Our Planet.
To help convert the research we fund into tangible impact, we launched a call for Activation Partners to help us catalyse entrepreneurial talent and venture creation across our opportunity spaces. The shape of these partnerships will be driven by the creativity, imagination, instincts and experience of our selected partners, but could include ideas like providing entrepreneurial training to our Programme Directors, attracting capital and new talent from the ecosystem into our opportunity spaces, or hosting a set of regular convenings focused on science translation.
As we continue to build the infrastructure to support our Programme Directors and the researchers we’re funding, we’ve now hired a set of technical specialists to work closely with our PDs, providing technical advice, evaluating research, and driving the execution of projects on a day-to-day basis.
Our procurement pipeline for the next three months reflects our immediate priorities: awarding funding to more Creators across the R&D ecosystem, launching more multi-year programmes and opportunity seed awards, and working with entrepreneurial partners who can help us deliver on our mission.
We will continue to report on our expenditure on cost on a quarterly basis, including information on funded projects. To find out more about our activities to date, read our Corporate Report here.
This register of Board, Committee Member + Programme Directors interests includes public appointments, directorships, business interests and affiliations.
Personal shareholdings, interests of minimal value, recently expired interests, and the interests of connected individuals, have been disclosed but not published. We’ll refresh and publicly update this register every quarter.
ARIA’s mission is to pursue new technological options that are currently intractable but have transformative potential for humanity. Research at the edge of the possible often means there is limited research or societal consensus, and requires a highly responsible approach.
Find out more about our approach to ethical and social responsibility in the design and delivery of programmes, and how we handle the professional ethics and integrity of the research we support.
This policy sets out the principles and rules for declaring and managing conflicts of interest at ARIA. ARIA’s objective is to ensure that the influence of third parties does not compromise our decision making or independent judgement.
Find out more about this policy, which is applicable to anybody working with ARIA.
This policy sets out ARIA’s requirements in respect to clinical trials.
Find out more about our approach to funding in this area.
This is ARIA’s first Annual Report and Accounts and covers the period from its establishment on 25 January 2023 to 31 March 2024.
ARIA’s first Corporate Plan outlines our progress to date, our approach to pursuing breakthroughs and our vision for long-term impact.