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
Enduring Atmospheric Platforms
Explore our new programme and submit your concept papers
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Sustained Viral Resilience
Read the call for proposals and apply for funding
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Precision Mitochondria
Learn more about the call for proposals and apply for funding
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Massively Scalable Neurotechnologies
Read our latest programme thesis and give us your feedback
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Accelerated Adaptation
Read the programme thesis and share your thoughts
Discover moreOpportunity 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:
Scoping Our Planet
Programme: Enduring Atmospheric Platforms
Programme: Forecasting Tipping Points
Understanding the Earth system is limited by serious measurement gaps that lead to significant uncertainties in predictions. What if we could cultivate frontier technologies, from measurement platforms to AI models, to generate actionable knowledge that serves society in diverse and impossible ways?
Open calls
Opportunity Seed
Rolling opportunity seeds
Building on our previous funding calls for opportunity seed projects, we’re launching an open rolling call for proposals as an experiment across multiple opportunity spaces. We’re keen to learn from this process and use the lessons to make future calls stronger and more effective. We're looking to fund projects within the Mathematics for Safe AI, Nature Computes Better and Scoping Our Planet opportunity spaces, with up to £500k each.
Opportunity spaces
Mathematics for Safe AI, Nature Computes Better, Scoping Our Planet
Application date
Rolling
Programme Funding
Precision Mitochondria: Full proposals
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
15 January 2025
Programme Funding
Enduring Atmospheric Platforms: Concept papers
ARIA is launching a programme backed by at least £50 million to unlock the stratosphere as a persistent operating environment. The goal is to solve the interdependent challenges of flight and energy to create a resilient and sustainable platform layer between Earth and space. Success will be measured by a single, galvanising demonstration: keeping a platform aloft for one week while maintaining line-of-sight to a fixed ground point and continuously powering a 300W payload. This technical breakthrough will provide the physical backbone required for next-generation advanced communications, serving as a critical enabler for the projected £13–20 trillion annual economic potential of AI.
Opportunity space
Enduring Atmospheric Platforms
Programme Director
Rico Chandra
Application Date
19 January 2025
Programme Funding
Sustained Viral Resilience: Full proposals
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
22 January 2025
Opportunity Seed
Engineering Ecosystem Resilience
The Engineering Ecosystem Resilience opportunity space asks: How can we become as precise and purposeful in our interactions with living systems as we are when we build buildings or software, so we can make ecosystems resilient and reverse biodiversity decline? We’re funding projects to challenge assumptions, open up new research paths, and provide steps towards new capabilities within the space, with up to £500k each.
Opportunity space
Engineering Ecosystem Resilience
Programme Director
Yannick Wurm
Application Date
02 February 2026
Featured insights
AI progress and a Safeguarded AI pivot
David 'davidad' Dalrymple explains the pivot in the Safeguarded AI programme
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Seeding new AgTech ventures with Nucleate UK
How Nucleate UK and ARIA are working together to drive impact beyond the lab
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Autonomous, scalable, real-time climate monitoring
Creator Mathieu Johnsson on how his team are innovating Arctic remote sensing
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