UK aiming to advance research and innovation with new independent body

A new bill has been introduced to Parliament to set up the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), an independent research body which will fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research.

The legislation will provide ARIA with the powers to have an innovative and flexible approach to programme funding, as well as giving it the ability to pursue ground-breaking discoveries.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill sets out the legislative framework and governance for the new agency, which was announced by the Business Secretary last month. The agency will empower some of the world’s most exceptional scientists and researchers to identify and fund transformational areas of research to turn incredible ideas into new technologies, discoveries, products and services.

The design of the agency allows this work to take place at greater speed, with flexibility and minimised bureaucracy.

The Bill equips ARIA with unique powers and freedoms that it needs to succeed, explicitly allowing the agency a much higher tolerance for failure than other UK funding agencies.

It also provides the agency with the powers to have an innovative and flexible approach to programme funding, including seed grants and prize incentives, as well as being able to start and stop projects according to their success. This innovative approach to funding will give its leadership the tools and autonomy to push boundaries in search of new discoveries. 

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng explains, ‘The success of our Vaccine Taskforce has shown the value of putting power in the hands of our best scientists to make swift, high-risk funding decisions – free from unnecessary bureaucracy. With this Bill, I am determined to ensure ARIA upholds this winning formula.’

The Government’s intention is for ARIA not to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act to reduce the administrative time required to process FOI requests.

ARIA will be based on models that have proved successful in other countries, like the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) model and will be backed by £800 million of government funding over the course of this Parliament.