New £800m Advanced Research & Invention Agency to be tasked with catalysing cutting edge research to tackle global challenges such as disease outbreaks and climate change
The government has today confirmed plans for a new independent scientific research agency with a specific remit to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects that have a higher chance of failure than projects traditionally backed by government but could play a major role in tackling global challenges such as climate change.
Dubbed the Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA), the new institution is to be backed by £800m of funding and will be largely modelled on the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
The project was championed by the Prime Minister's controversial former advisor Dominic Cummings, and in a move that has already been criticised by some environmental campaigners the government signalled that ARIA would be exempt from freedom of information rules.
However, the government today insisted that by reducing the bureaucracy faced by the new agency it would seek to instil a flexible and risk taking culture that would hopefully increase the chances of major scientific breakthroughs.
"The new agency will be independent of government and led by some of the world's most visionary researchers who will be empowered to use their knowledge and expertise to identify and back the most ambitious, cutting-edge areas of research and technology - helping to create highly skilled jobs across the country," the government said. "It will be able to do so with flexibility and speed by looking at how to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and experimenting with different funding models."
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the new agency would help build on the UK's impressive scientific heritage as it looks to accelerate the recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
"From the steam engine to the latest artificial intelligence technologies, the UK is steeped in scientific discovery," he said. "Today's set of challenges - whether disease outbreaks or climate change - need bold, ambitious and innovative solutions. Led independently by our most exceptional scientists, this new agency will focus on identifying and funding the most cutting-edge research and technology at speed.
"By stripping back unnecessary red tape and putting power in the hands of our innovators, the agency will be given the freedom to drive forward the technologies of tomorrow, as we continue to build back better through innovation."
The government said that in order to help accelerate scientific progress and catalyse the wider research ecosystem the new agency would experiment with funding models, including program grants, seed grants, and prize incentives, and will have the capability to start and stop projects according to their success, redirecting funding where necessary.
"It will have a much higher tolerance for failure than is normal, recognising that in research the freedom to fail is often also the freedom to succeed," the government added.
Legislation to create the new research agency is to be introduced to Parliament as soon as parliamentary time allows, the government said, adding that the aim was for it to be fully operational by 2022. A recruitment campaign will begin in the coming weeks to identify a 'world class' interim chief executive and chair for the agency.
The new body is intended to complement the work of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and build on the government's R&D Roadmap, which was published in July 2020.
The news was welcomed by business and academic groups, who predicted that ARIA could play a key role in driving the economic recovery from the covid crisis and supporting the UK's transition to a net zero emission economy.
Matthew Fell, CBI UK chief policy director, predicted "ARIA will create new opportunities for high-risk, high-reward research".
"As world leaders in R&D and home to the brightest and best scientists, the UK has a unique opportunity to play to its strength with this new agency, to help create jobs, raise productivity and tackle the biggest challenges facing our country such as net zero," he said. "Key to ARIA's success will be strong business engagement to make sure the brilliant ideas developed can make it through to market. This a prime chance for business, government and the research and innovation community to work together and turn ambitions into realities. And coalesce around a shared economic vision for the next decade in which innovation will be at the heart of it."
His comments were echoed by Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of universities, who hailed the creation of a new high-risk, high reward research agency as "a real statement of intent about the future direction of our economy".
"Get ARIA right and we can unlock technological innovations that will drive post-pandemic recovery and help tackle global challenges like reaching net zero," he said. "Russell Group universities are home to some of the world's best researchers. This new agency has the potential to help turn their ideas into technologies that will support jobs and change our country for the better."