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Summary
- The government announced setting up of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency.
- ARIA would be tasked to fund risky research and development programmes in various sectors.
- Backed by a massive finding of £800 million, ARIA would be led by world’s leading scientists free to work without interference.
The Boris Johnson government will be setting up a new science agency -- Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA) that would be funding fund risky research and development programmes in various sectors.
The government wants to set up ARIA in a bid to fulfil its aim to position the UK as a global science superpower. ARIA is backed by a massive funding of £800 million and it would fund scientists who develop transformational new technologies, products, and services.
ARIA would function like the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA was crucial in the invention of the internet and GPS. It would function independently with government involvement and is expected to have some of the world’s visionary researchers as leaders.
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Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that the UK had a legacy of scientific rigour and the present-day challenges required redressals and ARIA would be free of unnecessary red tapism to take bold decisions.
The government said that ARIA would be free to experiment with funding models. It could explore several different models like program grants, seed grants, and prize incentives. ARIA would also have the authority to begin and halt projects depending on their success. The government added that the agency would be much more tolerant of failure.
The government plans to make ARIA operational by 2022 and the legislation necessary to create this research institute would be introduced in Parliament soon.
The government had allocated £10.36 billion in 2020-21 for its research institutes and bodies. The Spending Review in November 2020 said that the government would be investing £14.6 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2021 to 2022. This is in line with the vision of 2.4 percent of the GDP being spent on R&D across sectors by 2027.
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PM Johnson’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings had said in 2019 that there should be funding available for the vision to do research in areas that require high risk. The sale of DeepMind, a start up in the artificial intelligence space, convinced Cummings that the UK was not doing enough for research. He then decided to create a UK equivalent of ARPA that had funded and created the internet and GPS.
The government also announced that it would commence its hiring campaign over the next few weeks, to recruit an interim Chief Executive and Chair who would help to shape the priorities and vision of the institute.
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UK Chief Policy Director, Confederation of British Industry, Matthew Fell said that with the ARIA, science, industry and government can work together to realise ambitious dreams. He also said a lot of ARIA’s success would depend on its ability to market the ideas that the institute would help develop.
Ed Miliband, Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said that to make ensure that funding processes are transparent, ARIA should be accountable under the Freedom of Information laws. He said that Labour has for long demanded investment in high-risk innovations but the government must clarify what would be the mandate of the newly-founded body.
