Written evidence submitted by ARIA (IGR0037)

Response to Science and Technology Select Committee (Commons) inquiry into ‘Innovation, Growth and Regions’

Introduction to ARIA

We are pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this inquiry, and welcome the Committee’s focus on this important topic. As one of organisations the Committee is interested to learn more about through this inquiry, our response is focused specifically on how ARIA contributes to the UK’s innovation ecosystem and to the mission of economic growth.

ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that will benefit everyone. Established in January 2023 via the ARIA Act, we fund teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible. Our success is shaped by one goal: transforming and improving the lives of the UK’s future generations. Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, we want ARIA to play a catalytic role. We will work to unlock breakthroughs that impact everyone across society, securing our collective health, improving the environment, and transforming digital society. 

From climate change to AI and bioengineering, the UK faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be addressed by science and technology. We have a unique approach to how we will address these challenges. All our programmes are chosen based on key criteria that the work pursued, if successful, would be transformative for society, with the potential to generate massive social and economic returns. These programmes are shaped and managed by our Programme Directors (PDs): a team of leaders with technical expertise and a focused vision for how scientific breakthroughs can enable a better future. We provide these scientists and engineers (and the research teams they fund) with the resources they need for their programmes to thrive. Collectively, their experience and expertise is diverse: it spans applied electrochemistry, plant physiology, artificial intelligence and neuroscience. This diversity will only expand as we continue to recruit PDs from broader fields in the science and technology ecosystem.

Since its establishment, ARIA has launched its first set of seven programmes, making a combined total of £435 million of funding available to the UK R&D ecosystem and beyond. Our inaugural set of programmes surface opportunities for growth and global leadership in a diverse range of research areas:

●        Precision Neurotechnologies – solve the mysteries of neurological disorders and mental health by interfacing with the brain in new ways.

●        Synthetic Plants – catalyse a new generation of major crops that are more productive, resilient, and sustainable.

●        Safeguarded AI – develop the safety standards we need for transformational AI.

●        Scaling Compute – reduce the cost and energy consumption of AI chips by 1000x and redefine our computing paradigm.

●        Forecasting Tipping Points – precisely monitor and predict the effects of climate change by developing an early warning system for tipping points.

●        Robot Dexterity – transform robotic capabilities and unlock a step change in human productivity.

●        Explore Climate Cooling – investigate whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible, scalable, and safe.

The Government’s Growth Mission

ARIA was designed to act as an independent organisation with the freedom to pursue bold and speculative breakthroughs across disciplines and sectors. Our programmes will not necessarily fit within any single government's immediate priorities. That said, ARIA will always work in areas that are critical for UK society – across quality of life, economic growth, and technological competitiveness. Our efforts will always align strongly with the government’s aims to drive economic growth across the country, and we believe that ARIA’s approach to innovation and R&D is in itself a powerful and differentiated engine for growth.

World-leading inventions will spur immense growth across many industries, or catalyse new ones. DARPA, which inspired the creation of ARIA, has repeatedly demonstrated this. DARPA investments have resulted in the creation of, and US leadership in, the internet, mRNA vaccine, personal computing, stealth technology and GPS. ARIA too can be a game changer to UK growth and prosperity. For example, one of our programmes is exploring ways to create AI compute hardware at a thousandth of its current cost. If successful, this would open up new avenues for scaling the UK’s AI industry, which is already worth more than £16.9bn in the UK[1].

Other ways we are working towards driving economic growth include:

-          Making sure through our funding terms that we’re minimising barriers to scale of impact and maximising variable paths to new technologies and industries – for example, ensuring we’re removing friction for science founders on their path to success by limiting equity/royalties that universities can retain in spinouts resulting from ARIA-funded research.

-          Activating entrepreneurs and startups as a key driving force to translate any technological breakthroughs emerging from our programmes into commercial opportunities. We believe the strongest driving force for translating new capabilities emerging from our programmes into real-world impact will be ambitious, risk-taking science entrepreneurs, as well as companies positioned to advance the R&D we fund.

-          Actively exploring new mechanisms to harness entrepreneurial talent and venture creation in our opportunity spaces. This includes a new set of partnerships (known as Activation Partners – more information on this is below) we are supporting to design, activate and catalyse bespoke science entrepreneurship activities across our opportunity spaces.

-          Reaching communities across the UK and beyond. The frontier of science and technology has no borders. To catalyse transformative technologies and industries for the UK, we need to be mindful of our reach and ambition across all regions, as well globally. We're engaging with a diverse pool of talent, local and global, to ensure our programmes’ success.

Our contribution to the innovation ecosystem – regionally and nationally

We are confident that our work complements the UK R&D system. We want our efforts to be multiplicative – ARIA works closely with UKRI, Innovate UK, learned societies, universities, startups, industry, and more.

The discovery stage that our PDs go through to develop their specific programme from their initial opportunity space (the broader exploratory area of research and interest set out by each PD at the start) is underpinned by open and diverse engagement with the R&D ecosystem. This includes engagement through workshops, public calls for feedback, and visits to universities and industry across the country, resulting in programmes that are genuinely shaped by the research communities they end up supporting and collaborating with.

Our contribution to the UK’s national innovation ecosystem includes:

-          Activation Partnerships: working with nine entrepreneurial organisations to help ensure that promising early-stage R&D has a clear route to commercial and societal impact. These partners are delivering a range of bespoke activities across our current and emerging opportunity spaces, from connecting emerging research opportunities with investors to helping to prototype inventions. Our partners work alongside us to foster an environment for science entrepreneurship to drive progress and maximise the impact of ARIA-funded research.

-          New companies and organisations: moving to the UK and/or being established: ARIA’s Activation Partner call has led to at least five US organisations establishing their operations in the UK (including two of the world’s most successful deep tech venture capital funds). ARIA’s first 50 funded projects have also led to new companies and organisations, or subsidiaries, being set up in the UK. For example, this includes the UK’s first worker-owned cooperative research labs, GLAIVE, in Glasgow.

-          Engagement from the domestic and international R&D community: we have generated engagement and excitement from the UK and international R&D community. For example, as well as uniting leading experts from around the country, our Scaling Compute Programme has attracted ambitious international organisations, who will be expanding their technical operations and teams in the UK (Rain UK, Normal Computing UK).

-          Connecting the ecosystem: we are also bringing together new communities who have never worked together before. This is fostered in a number of ways, including through our unique teaming platform, designed to enable and encourage collaboration in our programmes. For example, our Precision Neurotechnologies programme has sparked a partnership between a US research organisation, producing world-leading minimally invasive ultrasound devices for neuromodulation, and an NHS trust in the UK. Their collaboration will see this US company bringing its technology, which is potentially the most advanced brain computer interface for psychiatric disorders, to the UK to be tested in clinical trials run by the NHS trust.

16 January 2025