Public research body · Science policy · London, United Kingdom (PO Box address listed in UK ICO registration: PO Box · Est. 2023
Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is a UK executive non-departmental public body (sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, DSIT) created to fund high-risk, high-reward R&D in underexplored areas, with the goal of enabling breakthrough scientific and technological outcomes for the UK and the world. ARIA’s model emphasizes independence and expert-led programme leadership: ARIA empowers scientists and engineers (including Programme Directors) to pursue research that is too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere.
Strategically, ARIA operates as a portfolio-style R&D funder rather than a single lab: it defines “opportunity spaces” (emerging or underexplored research directions) and then runs multi-year programmes within those spaces led by Programme Directors. ARIA also runs “opportunity seed” and funding calls to support additional early projects (flares) inside each space. ARIA’s current operating and governance posture is captured in its annual reports to Parliament, which describe ARIA’s accountability to Parliament through DSIT and the governance structure around its Board and Executive leadership.
No curated programs yet. Check the careers page ↗.
Pursuing potentially transformative technologies requires a highly responsible approach. At the heart of this responsibility is a commitment to transparency and accountability.
HomeAdvanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone.
Programme DirectorsMeet ARIA's Programme Directors - the exceptional scientists and engineers exploring uncharted territory. Discover the experts leading high-risk, high-reward R&D and shaping the future of UK science and innovation.
Opportunity spacesExplore ARIA's Opportunity Spaces. Dive into our work on AI, viral resilience, ecosystem engineering, climate and more to see how we're defining the next frontier of science.
Robot DexterityARIA's Robot Dexterity programme aims to transform robotic hardware and tactile sensing to achieve human-level precision and unlock global productivity.
Funding | Robot LocomotionExplore funding in the Robot Locomotion programme.
Opportunity seeds | Resilient Climate and EcosystemsLearn more about opportunity seeds in the Resilient Climate and Ecosystems opportunity space.
Opportunity seeds | Trust Everything, EverywhereLearn more about funding for opportunity seeds in the Trust Everything, Everywhere opportunity space.
Funded projects | Precision NeurotechnologiesMeet the R&D teams behind ARIA's Precision Neurotechnologies programme. Discover the startups and researchers building next-gen brain-circuit interfaces.
Scaling Inference LabThe Scaling Inference Lab is an open AI testbed within our Scaling Compute programme prioritising rapid iteration, open collaboration, and long-term sustainability.
Rethickening Arctic Sea Ice (RASI)Learn about ARIA's Re-thickening Arctic Sea Ice (RASI) project - testing the feasibility and safety of artificially thickening sea ice to delay summer melt in the Arctic.
Opportunities and eventsARIA explains the system-level gap between promising AI hardware on a bench and performance when integrated into complete racks/systems, and describes the role of the Scaling Inference Lab testbed and related scaling efforts.
Predicting Evolution: a possible ARIA programmeARIA describes an early draft concept for a programme aiming to transform evolutionary biology into a predictive tool, including proposed approaches such as massively replicated experimental evolution and prediction competitions.
The missing sense in machine intelligenceARIA interviews Programme Director Claire Donoghue about Hypersensory Intelligence: Olfactory Perception and frames the motivation as building a computational sense of smell.
From signals to decisionsARIA describes its Forecasting Tipping Points programme entering Phase 2 (as presented on ARIA’s Insights listing).
Olfactory Perception: our latest funding callARIA describes its latest funding call connected to the Hypersensory Intelligence programme direction (Olfactory Perception).
Opportunity spaces: three years inA CEO note describing ARIA’s opportunity space evolution (three-year retrospective described on ARIA’s Insights listing).