Trust Everything, Everywhere
Trust 'building blocks', like encryption, enable digital industries to flourish securely, but they don't extend into the physical world. With emerging technology blurring the line between digital and physical, a new trust infrastructure that straddles both worlds could unlock cyber-physical markets.
Opportunity seeds: Funding
Submit your application by 27 July 2026 (14:00 BST)
We are seeking high-potential proposals to build a new cyber-physical trust infrastructure, with funding available up to £500,000 each.
What we are looking for
We are interested in applications from fields including, but not limited to: Cryptography, Information Science, Molecular Chemistry and Synthesis, Advanced Materials Science, Synthetic Biology, Systems Engineering, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Human-AI Interaction, Cognitive Security, Hardware and Silicon Security, Astrophysics, and Social Sciences.
Ideas could range from early stage curiosity-driven research through to translational and close-to-commercial science and technology.
Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Nature cryptography: New approaches to security based on physical, chemical or biological processes, including molecular systems that record biological change, built-in physical time delays, tamper-evident quantum materials, or guarantees grounded in thermodynamic costs.
- Programmable reality: Tools and materials that allow physical systems to sense, compute, adapt or enforce boundaries without conventional digital hardware, including soft matter, synthetic biology and mathematical methods for containing dynamic biological networks.
- Trust tools: Interfaces, software and AI systems that make it easier for non-experts to design, programme and verify physical, molecular or biological security systems, including low-code tools for cryptographic hardware and programmable matter.
Out of scope
- Ideas that fit squarely within the Scaling Trust programme.
- Ideas that are likely to happen without ARIA support, for example, through other available funding mechanisms.
- Commercial products.
For more information read the call for proposals and apply below.
Application deadline: 27 July 2026 (14:00 BST)
Resources
Clarification questions
If you have any additional questions, please use the chat function on this page for the quickest response – you'll find the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. It can guide you to the right information or connect you with the ARIA team if needed. We’ll update this page with questions and answers.
Nb: Clarification questions that need to be reviewed by the ARIA team should be submitted via the chat function no later than four days prior to the relevant deadline date. Clarification questions received after this date will not be reviewed.