Aria won’t fund anything ‘incremental or cosmetic’

Agency leaders say they want it to be “synonymous with bold visions and radical ideas”

The new leaders of the UK government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency have said they want the funder to be synonymous with “bold visions and radical ideas” rather than focusing on “incremental and cosmetic” innovations.

In their first op-ed since being announced as leaders of the nascent funder—broadly modelled on the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—chief executive Ilan Gur and chair Matt Clifford said Aria was a “rare opportunity to create a new kind of research agency that, like Darpa, creates transformational technologies decades ahead of its time”.