High Risk, High Reward Investment With ARIA – The Government's New Tech Initiative

In July last year, the UK set out its R&D Roadmap which promised: “to strengthen our global position in research, unleash a new wave of innovation, enhance our national security and revitalise our international ties”. This included a commitment to foster R&D in lower-uptake areas and remove barriers to innovation. 

This week, we have some big news from Boris showing the government’s first big Post-Brexit commitment to the science and tech industries with its intention to form a new research agency for high risk, high reward science and technology investment.

“The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) will empower leading scientists to identify and fund potentially ground-breaking research, in an attempt to establish the UK as a global scientific leader.”

With the agency expected to be up and running by next year, it seems that both the development of the Astra Zeneca vaccine and the surge in demand for new tech solutions throughout the pandemic have truly strengthened the government’s commitment to making the UK a centre for innovation and a global hub for research and development. 

“ARIA will unleash our most inspirational scientists and inventors, empowering them with the freedom to drive forward their scientific vision and explore game-changing new ideas at a speed like never before. This will help to create new inventions, technologies and industries that will truly cement the UK’s status as a global science superpower.” 

Science and Innovation Minister Amanda Solloway

It all sounds great, but what will ARIA do, and what does it actually mean for business?

ARIA will add on to the UK’s existing Research and Innovation body, UKRI, playing a similar role to organisations such as ARPA and DARPA in the USA, which have already proved successful and were crucial to the foundation of the internet, GPS, and more recently the development of the mRNA vaccine.

ARIA will be dedicated to seeking out and fostering radical innovation at speed through £800 million funding, business engagement and cutting through a big chunk of the bureaucratic processes that we are all so used to. By experimenting with different funding models, and having a higher tolerance for project failure, ARIA will help to build at the grassroots – getting new and interesting projects off the ground. 

As discussed in previous articles on the Post-Brexit Tech Industry and Outlooks For 2021 now is the time for forward-thinking and innovation. ARIA presents an extraordinary opportunity for the UK to lead the way in transformational research. 

Although the budget of £800 million may seem like only a tiny fraction of the £10.36 billion set aside for 2021 by the government, it has the potential, if used properly, to change the industry and inspire much larger investment from both wider government funding and the private sector.

We at foundations, and the business leaders we work with, support the announcement and are excited to see where it leads, and hope that the implementation is truly able to cut through a lot of the red tape that all too often hinders the effectiveness of government initiatives.

The agency needs to be driven by the right minds, stay agile in its approach, and truly embody the mantra that risk and failure are an essential part of the journey to success in order to prevent those higher-risk projects from being managed out over time. 

As its USA counterparts have shown – the long-term payoffs of this kind of high risk, high reward research pay off significantly in the long term with huge potential benefits for the UK’s scientific and technological capabilities.

If they are able to do this, the UK has the potential to follow in its own footsteps as the epicentre of innovation and cement is position as a global science and technology superpower.

What are your thoughts – will this impact your business and what sort of projects would you like to see being funded?