Empowering scientists to reach for the edge of the possible
Scroll to get to know ARIAARIA is a UK R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone.
Society’s most important advances have stemmed from those willing to think differently about what might be possible.
The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) empowers scientists and engineers, from our Programme Directors to the teams we fund, with the resources and freedom to pursue breakthroughs at the edge of the possible.
Many will fail to meet their target, but their efforts will inspire the next generation. Those that do succeed will generate massive social and economic returns.
The latest from ARIA
Opportunity spaces
Defined by our Programme Directors, ARIA opportunity spaces are highly consequential for society; under-explored relative to their potential impact; and ripe for new talent, perspectives, or resources to change what’s possible. Each opportunity space represents fertile ground we'll harvest for technical breakthroughs through programme and seed funding.
Discover our opportunity spaces below:

Sculpting Innate Immunity
Programme: Sustained Viral Resilience
As the body’s first line of defence, the innate immune system has enormous therapeutic potential, sensing and initiating responses to infection, injury, metabolic stress, and chronic degeneration. Modulating innate immunity with precision and accuracy could unlock a new paradigm in human health.
Open calls
Programme Funding
Precision Mitochondria: Concept papers
ARIA is launching a programme backed by at least £55 million to make the mitochondrial genome programmable in vivo. The immediate goal is to achieve persistent, reproducible expression of a novel gene from engineered mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in a vertebrate system. The programme will fund the creation of a versatile toolkit to empower researchers with new capabilities. This toolkit will enable the delivery of nucleic acids into the mitochondrial matrix, the expression of functional proteins from the introduced genetic code, and the maintenance of engineered genomes through cellular replication.
Opportunity space
Bioenergetic Engineering
Programme Director
Nathan Wolfe
Application Date
27 October 2025
Programme Funding
Sustained Viral Resilience: Concept papers
We’re accepting applications for funding within our £46m Sustained Viral Resilience programme. The programme’s goal is to engineer the body's innate immune system, creating a new class of medicines we're calling ‘sustained innate immunoprophylactics’ (SIIPs). If successful, they’ll provide durable, broad-spectrum protection against multiple respiratory viruses, creating a foundational resilience to viral disease that complements traditional vaccines. We’ll not only fund efforts to create new kinds of prophylactics, but also activities that support adoption and those that unlock smoother translation and commercialisation pathways.
Opportunity space
Sculpting Innate Immunity
Programme Director
Brian Wang
Application Date
10 November 2025
Trust Everything, Everywhere: Pre-programme discovery
The Trust Everything, Everywhere opportunity space asks how we can develop new trust infrastructure for an increasingly cyber-physical world. We’re now looking to fund a number of short research projects to help guide the development of an ambitious research programme and build community within this space.
Opportunity space
Trust Everything, Everywhere
Programme Director
Alex Obadia
Application Date
12 November 2025
AI Scientist
We are inviting proposals for a series of short exploratory projects to be undertaken by existing AI systems capable of performing the full end-to-end workflow of scientific knowledge creation. We are specifically looking for AI systems that can handle ideation and hypothesis creation, the design of experiments to test these hypotheses, the ability to run experiments in ideally fully automated labs, and the interpretation of results to draw conclusions. The AI system should be able to place its work in the context of related literature and produce a comprehensive written report detailing the related work, the idea explored, experiments, results, and conclusions. Please note that this is NOT a call to fund the development of a new AI Scientist system; you are expected to have an already functioning platform which can be used to attempt to solve a research problem.
Application Date
14 November 2025