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The government is moving ahead with the launch of a new £ 800 million “high risk, high reward” scientific agency to provide rapid funding to UK inventors and researchers.
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), said to have been the brainchild of former senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, will help inventors turn their ideas into new technologies, discoveries, products and services.
The ARIA is based on the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which aims to make critical investments in innovative technologies for national security.
The new agency is said to be the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings.
DARPA’s past projects have included an internet ancestor, prosthetic limbs, a GPS predecessor, portable jetpacks, unmanned vehicles, robotics, stealth boats, and an early version of Siri technology now prevalent on iPhones.
It was also an early sponsor of mRNA vaccines and antibody therapies, which have since spawned COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Cummings, who left Downing Street amid a bitter power struggle among Number 10 attendees last year, has blogged extensively about the potential benefits of a British version of DARPA.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak previously announced £ 800 million funding for a “new blue skies funding agency” for the UK, modeled after DARPA, as per last March’s budget.
According to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the new independent agency will be able to act “with flexibility and speed, seeking to avoid unnecessary bureaucracies and experimenting with different financing models.”
It was previously reported that ARIA will be able to circumvent the usual rules on the investment of public money.
An autonomous boat developed by DARPA
Trade Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “From the steam engine to the latest artificial intelligence technologies, the UK is full of scientific discoveries.
“Today’s set of challenges, be they disease outbreaks or climate change, call for bold, ambitious and innovative solutions.
“Led independently by our most exceptional scientists, this new agency will focus on identifying and funding the most innovative research and technology quickly.
“By eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy and putting power in the hands of our innovators, the agency will have the freedom to drive the technologies of tomorrow, as we continue to rebuild better through innovation.”
A hiring drive will begin in the coming weeks to identify an interim CEO and president to help establish ARIA, while the government will legislate for its creation with the goal of making it fully operational next year.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific advisor, said: “ARIA will build on the UK’s world-class scientific research and innovation system.
“The importance of scientific innovation has never been clearer than it was over the past year and this new body provides an exciting new funding mechanism for pioneering research and development.”
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Labor’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has expressed concern over previous reports that ARIA could be exempted from Freedom of Information laws and thus prevent taxpayers from knowing how cash is being spent.
“The work has long called for investment in high-risk and ambitious science,” he said.
“From artificial intelligence to quantum technologies to the life sciences, the UK has long been at the forefront of cutting edge research and development.
“Labor will continue to support and defend the work of our country’s scientists.
“But the government must urgently clarify the mission and mandate of this new organization, following a strong engagement with the UK science base, those closest to the job.
“And it is important that ARIA does not have a blanket exemption from freedom of information laws as reported, so that taxpayers know how their money is being spent.
“Many researchers have been hit hard during the crisis, but have been excluded from government support, and it is still unclear what the science budget will be in just six weeks and where it will be spent, leaving the industry in limbo. “
