Advanced Research and Invention Agency

Advanced Research and Invention Agency
Non-departmental public body overview
Formed26 January 2023 (26 January 2023)
Employees53 (FY2024/25)[1]
Annual budget£27.6 million (FY2024/25)[1]
Ministers responsible
Parent department
Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Websitewww.aria.org.uk

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) often abbreviated to ARIA is a British non-departmental public body established by Dominic Cummings and mandated in law via the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Act 2022.

The parliamentary act created the legislative framework for the agency. It was formally established as an independent research body in January 2023.[2]

ARIA has a similar remit to the United States' DARPA[3][4][5] It is designed to operate with a large degree of autonomy and is exempt from Freedom of Information requests.[6]

It funds high-risk scientific research such as climate engineering, brain–computer interfaces, genetically modified crops, robotics and artificial intelligence.[7]

History

Formation

The political strategist Dominic Cummings, acting as Boris Johnson's chief advisor, suggested that the United Kingdom might benefit from a research agency akin to the United States' DARPA agency. Cummings proposed that the organisation should be legally mandated to fund high-risk projects, operate independently of parliament and be exempt from freedom of information laws.[8][7][6] Labour later tried to repeal ARIA's freedom of information exemption but was defeated.[6][9]Labour Party MP Member of Parliament Dawn Butler said this would "raise alarm bells" about how taxpayer money is spent, in light of a scandal over how the UK government procured PPE contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The (then) Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted the "corporate governance arrangements are very robust" and that MPs would be able to scrutinise the agency's accounts.[10]

Kwarteng announced the non-departmental public body (NGO) in February 2022. Its press release referenced several British inventors and claimed that the NGO would be modelled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): "More recently, ARPA's successor, DARPA, was a vital pre-pandemic funder of mRNA vaccines and antibody therapies, leading to critical COVID therapies." - gov.uk[11]

It was established in January 2023 and received £800 million in government funding.[12] Its sponsor is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.[13][14][15]

Parliament established ARIA in statute and set a ten-year legal mandate. The law directs the agency to fund research that is risky, uncertain and speculative in nature.[2]

In 2022, Dominic Cummings suggested that ARIA should act as a "moonshot" programme akin to the United States' DARPA. It operates independently of the UK government's main funding body, UKRI.[16] The agency avoids DARPA's connection to military research.[17]

On 20 July 2022, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced that ARIA's first CEO would be Ilan Gur and its first Chair would be Matt Clifford.[18] In early 2023, it was announced that Nobel prize-winning organic chemist Sir David MacMillan and Dame Kate Bingham, the entrepreneur who headed the Vaccine Taskforce, would join the board.[19]

2024-present

Ilan Gur and Matt Clifford appeared in front of the Parliamentary Select Committee in September 2025.

During the hearing, Labour's Allison Gardner questioned Clifford and Gur about their risk appetite. Specifically, she asked whether the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has the authority to stop ARIA's projects. Gur replied, "they don't"[20]

In 2025, the UK Government committed to providing ARIA with a minimum of £1bn over the spending review period of 2025–2029.[21][22][15]

Following the Government's June 2025 Spending Review, the Department of Science and Technology (DSIT) has committed to providing ARIA with a minimum of £1bn over the Spending Review period.[21][22]

In 2026, the Guardian reported that ARIA gave away £23m to nine US-based technology companies and £29.4m to three venture capital groups, also from the United States of America. They gave £5.4m to Venture Café to set up cafés in the UK and paid £7m to another US firm for a limited run of entrepreneurship courses. The economist Cecilia Rikap accused the NGO of "taxpayer money to further expand the power of the US tech ecosystem". Two of ARIA's recipients registered with Companies House days before receiving amounts exceeding £10m each.[7][23]

Organisation

On 20 July 2022, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced that ARIA's first CEO would be Ilan Gur and its first Chair would be Matt Clifford.[18]

Previously, Gur served as a founding Programme Director at ARPA-E.[24][25]

In early 2023, the NGO announced the addition of two new board members. They were the Nobel prize-winning organic chemist David MacMillan and the venture capitalist Kate Bingham. The latter is former chair of the Vaccine Taskforce.[19]

The first cohort of eight Programme Directors joined ARIA in October 2023, followed by another eight in April 2025.[26][27][28]

Gur announced in June 2025 that he was leaving his position at ARIA[29] and in November 2025, Kathleen Fisher was appointed CEO Elect of ARIA and took over from Gur in February 2026.[30]

ARIA's Board comprises the CEO, Kathleen Fisher; the Chair, Matt Clifford; the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Dame Angela McLean, and five other Non-Executive Board members – appointed by the Secretary of State for DSIT – as well as three other Executive Team members, including Ant Rowstron as Chief Technology Officer, and Pippy James as Deputy Chief Executive Officer — appointed by the chair.[31] ARIA's Advisors include Sir Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of Google DeepMind, Hayaatun Sillem, former chief executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of payments company Stripe.[15]

The NGO works with nine non-profits that it refers to as its "activation partners".[31][32] It claims to have partnered with Google's DeepMind and several venture capital and philanthropy organisations.[32]

Genetically modified crops

ARIA provided £6.7M in funding to researchers at the University of Oxford to improve yields of potato and wheat.[33] Also known as the OPTIMISE Project (Oxford Plastid Transformation for an Improved Sustainable Economy),[34] the university claims that the project will produce crops that are more resilient to the stresses of climate change and the increased demand brought about by human overpopulation.[35]

The NGO refers to its genetically modified crop program as its synthetic plants program. The funding is split between two teams, which it refers to as TA1 and TA2. The former operates under the design, build and deliver moniker and consists of seven teams that aim to improve the stress tolerance and photosynthetic efficiency of potatoes. The latter group is concerned with the social and ethical impacts of these technologies and how best to engage with the public on these issues.[36]

The TA1 teams' research seeks to identify specific genetic traits in wild plants that have adapted to climate change and recreate those characteristics in staple food crops. Initially, it will focus on potatoes.[37][36] Because chloroplasts carry their own DNA, the researchers aim to deploy DNA assembly techniques to construct synthetic chloroplast genomes and transfer them to the staple food crops.[34][36]

The United Kingdom's Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 exempts precision-edited crops from genetically modified organism regulations(GMO regulations).[38][39][40] Therefore, under English law (Scotland and Wales have yet to ratify the bill), utilising naturally occurring chloroplast variations in plants circumvents GMO regulations.[34] Professor Steve Kelly from the University of Oxford describes this as a "regulation-friendly approach".[35]

Climate engineering research

In April 2025, it was reported that ARIA would fund a £50 million programme of small-scale outdoor geoengineering experiments. The agency stated that the experiments would be rigorously assessed and were intended to generate data on the feasibility and risks of Solar radiation modification (SRM) technologies. These methods seek to reflect a portion of incoming sunlight, for example through the injection of reflective particles into the atmosphere or by increasing the reflectivity of clouds.[41]

The programme was announced alongside an £11 million initiative, making the United Kingdom one of the largest funders of geoengineering research. ARIA's work is led by Professor Mark Symes.[41]

The research has drawn criticism from some scientists, who warned of potential unintended consequences such as disrupted rainfall patterns.[41]

In written evidence submitted to Parliament by the Action Group on Erosion, Technology, and Concentration (ETC) accused the NGO of using the UK Government's reputation and the British tapayer's money to 'legitimise outdoor geoengineering experiments' and that doing so contraviened the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity moratorium on solar geoengineering research.[42][43]

Ultrasound-emitting brain implants

ARIA funded an NHS trial that involved implanting an ultrasound-emitting brain-computer interface beneath the skulls of mentally ill and neurologically disordered patients. The device's inventors hypothesised that playing ultrasound directly into the brain would switch on clusters of neurons and enable them to fire specific neurons remotely. The researchers claimed that the technology will help them alter their patients' moods and feelings of motivation. The US-based organisation developed the technology also benefited from £6.5m in funding provided by the NGO.[44] It has also partnered with Cambridge University Health Partners to engineer brain implants for people living with mental illnesses, neurological conditions and central nervous system injuries.[45]

Other funding areas

ARIA's other programmes include Forecasting Tipping Points, an international programme of 27 teams, led by Sarah Bohndiek and Gemma Bale, and spanning climate science, optics, computer science, mathematics, statistics, photonics, and nuclear physics; and Scaling Compute, led by Suraj Bramhavar, targeting reducing AI computing costs by a factor of 1,000.[46][47]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Advanced Research and Invention Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 Cookson, Clive (26 August 2023). "Taking 'bold' bets: new UK agency prepares to fund breakthrough technologies". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  3. ↑ Espiner, Tom (19 February 2021). "UK to launch 'high risk' science agency". BBC News. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  4. ↑ Heffer, Greg (19 February 2021). "'Licence to fail': £800m for new scientific agency that will focus on high-risk, high-reward projects". Sky News. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  5. ↑ "Reeves uplifts Aria budget to £1 billion and funds AI courses". Times Higher Education (THE). 11 June 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Swinford, Steven. "Secrecy for high-risk tech research agency Aria". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Down, Aisha (3 May 2026). "UK 'invention agency' grants £50m of public money to US tech and venture capital firms". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  8. ↑ "Inside ARIA". BBC. 18 January 2026. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  9. ↑ Evan Davis (18 January 2026). "Inside ARIA". BBC Radio 4 - Currently (Podcast). BBC. Event occurs at 9:13. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "Health department was 'smoking ruin' on Covid - Cummings". BBC News. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  11. ↑ "UK to launch new research agency to support high risk, high reward science". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  12. ↑ "UK to launch £800m science research agency". Financial Times. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  13. ↑ "Advanced Research and Invention Agency Act 2022 - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament". bills.parliament.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  14. ↑ "Independence of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)". GOV.UK. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 Prescott, Katie (26 May 2025). "Inside Aria, the gamble that could make the UK rich or go nowhere". The Times. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  16. ↑ "Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA): policy statement". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  17. ↑ Gaind, Nisha (13 September 2024). "The UK's $1-billion bet to create technologies that change the world". Nature. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  18. 1 2 "Innovation heavyweights appointed to lead new Advanced Research and Invention Agency". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  19. 1 2 "Nobelist and ex-vaccines chief join newly established Aria". Times Higher Education (THE). 27 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  20. ↑ "Science, Innovation and Technology Committee". committees.parliament.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  21. 1 2 "Spending Review 2025 (HTML)". GOV.UK. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  22. 1 2 "Britain's moonshot factory has a moment of opportunity". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2025. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  23. ↑ Garton-Crosbie, Abbi (3 May 2026). "UK 'invention agency' gives £50m of public cash to US tech firms". The National (Scotland). Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  24. ↑ Lewin, Amy (27 August 2024). "ARIA's Ilan Gur on backing the big breakthroughs barely anyone thinks are possible". Sifted. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  25. ↑ Gilliam, Eric. "Inside ARIA, the UK's Bet to Build Scientific Revolutions". www.asimov.press. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  26. ↑ "High-risk UK science agency seeks to boost healthy life and tackle bio threats". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2026. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  27. ↑ Gaind, Nisha (18 September 2024). "The UK's $1-billion bet to create technologies that change the world". Nature. 633 (8030): 512–514. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02995-1.
  28. ↑ Reynolds, Matt (2 October 2024). "Eight Scientists, a Billion Dollars, and the Moonshot Agency Trying to Make Britain Great Again". WIRED. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  29. ↑ "Politico Pro". pro.politico.eu. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  30. ↑ Durrani, Jamie. "Computer scientist Kathleen Fisher to become next head of UK's advanced research agency". Chemistry World. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  31. 1 2 "Annual Report Accounts 2024-2025" (PDF).
  32. 1 2 Hogan, Sophie (9 October 2024). "Google DeepMind features among Aria 'activation partners'". Research Professional News. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  33. ↑ Manuschka, Jacob (8 June 2025). "Oxford researchers get £6.7m to improve potato yields". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  34. 1 2 3 Pieterse, Lukie (9 June 2025). "Inside the race to engineer smarter potatoes: How 'chloroplast engineering' could usher in a new era of high-yield, climate-resilient varieties". Potato News Today. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  35. 1 2 "New ARIA award will aim to deliver a revolution in sustainable agricultural production". Department of Biology, University of Oxford. 2 June 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  36. 1 2 3 Cozier, Muriel (5 June 2025). "Synthetic plants: The quest for better crops starts with the potato". Society of Chemical Industry. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  37. ↑ Woodrow, Laura (6 May 2026). "Engineering resilient food systems in a warming world". Nature (journal). Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  38. ↑ Dwi Wahyuni, Febriana; Fathoni, Ahmad; Sukma, Dewi; Wahyuning Ardie, Sintho; Mulyama Zainuddin, Ima; Qi, Baoxiu; Sudarsono, Sudarsono (2026). "Harnessing genome editing for post-harvest improvement of crops: a comprehensive bibliometric and literature review". Current Research in Biotechnology. 11. doi:10.1016/j.crbiot.2026.100384. ISSN 2590-2628 – via Science Direct. United Kingdom: Has implemented the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, which effectively exempts precision-edited crops (without foreign DNA) from strict GMO regulations. However, Scotland and Wales still apply the old rules, creating fragmentation within the UK.
  39. ↑ "England poised to green-light precision breeding". Nature Biotechnology. 43: 837. 16 June 2025. doi:10.1038/s41587-025-02715-8 – via Nature (journal).
  40. ↑ "Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023". legislation.gov.uk. 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  41. 1 2 3 Carrington, Damian (22 April 2025). "UK scientists to launch outdoor geoengineering experiments". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  42. ↑ Evidence provided to the UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Investment in Research Infrastructure, Parliament of the United Kingdom: ETC Group (eco-justice), p. 3
  43. ↑ "UK Agency Starts Funding Highly Controversial Solar Geoengineering Experiments Despite Enormous Risks". Center for International Environmental Law. 7 May 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  44. ↑ Devlin, Hannah (20 January 2025). "Brain implant that could boost mood by using ultrasound to go under NHS trial". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  45. ↑ "Cambridge NeuroWorks – Powered by ARIA". Cambridge University Health Partners. 2026. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  46. ↑ Devlin, Hannah (20 January 2025). "Brain implant that could boost mood by using ultrasound to go under NHS trial". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  47. ↑ Carrington, Damian (18 February 2025). "Early warning system for climate tipping points given £81m kickstart". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
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