UK DARPA copy appoints new program directors
The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has appointed a second tranche of program leaders and announced new program areas, suggesting confidence in its long-term funding.
Programmable plants, living system energy flows, and bio-security are all on the menu as the DARPA clone enters its third year.
Brainchild of former prime ministerial advisor Dominic Cummings, ARIA was first announced in a policy statement in March 2021. It was earmarked for £800 million investment in the budget and was set to be modeled on the principles of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), now renamed DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). ARPA was behind ARPAnet, a precursor to the internet.
It got off to a slow start and was not formally established until January 2023.
In autumn last year, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee questioned the long-term funding for ARIA as the Labour government grapples with a historic spending squeeze.
A member of the UK’s upper chamber pointed out ARIA’s initial funding would see it through to the end of the 2025/26 financial year. Anything beyond that would depend on the outcome of the five-year spending review, set to be announced in June.
At the time, ARIA chair Matt Clifford said: “The multi-year spending review will be a really important moment for ARIA. I think we’re starting from a position of strength in having broad cross-party support right from inception.”
ARIA has now announced a its second set of program directors to head up new subject areas, and posted new opportunities for funding.
Speaking to the Financial Times over the weekend, ARIA’s chief executive, Ilan Gur, said the news was “a recognition that we’ve grown confident enough that we’re able to unlock these new areas and communities of researchers.”
“They are people coming from the coalface with the goal of looking across the research landscape at the big opportunities … [that are missing and] that the system probably won’t otherwise fund right now,” he added.
Among the new program directors is Nathan Wolfe, who is set to research energy flows in living systems by studying mitochondria, elements of cells that generate energy.
Another new program director, Nicole Wheeler, is set to use AI to scrape millions of published scientific papers to identify possible risk warnings in bio-security.
Funding opportunities currently include using “programmable plants” to provide food and “a sustainable and thriving biosphere for future generations.” ®
