Opportunities for the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)

Society’s most important advances have stemmed from those willing to think differently about what might be possible. ARIA is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Created by an Act of Parliament, and sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, ARIA funds breakthrough R&D in under explored areas to catalyse new paths to prosperity for the UK and the world. 

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Contents

Summary

Here’s the corrected version in British English:


We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research that is too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere. ARIA’s programmes are shaped and led by our Programme Directors. ARIA’s Programme Directors are tasked with developing a concrete vision for how technology could enable a better future, and they then direct funding into research that can make it a reality. ARIA Programme Directors retain creative control over the direction of their projects and programmes and have flexibility over how, who, and what R&D they fund. The first step in doing this is to define opportunity spaces.

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 will harvest for technical breakthroughs through programme and seed funding.

In developing the opportunity spaces and programmes, our Programme Directors have, and will, publish opportunity space information and programme theses seeking feedback and input. You can find these documents and information on how to engage here.

ARIA Programme Directors will also launch opportunity space and programme funding calls. You can find our current and past research and development funding opportunities here.

You can also sign up for updates directly here.

Eligibility

We welcome solicited applications from across the R&D ecosystem, including individuals, universities, research institutions, small, medium and large companies, charities and public sector research organisations.

Scientific and technological breakthroughs often rely on a mix of academic and industrial capabilities that can be hard to find in a single organisation, so our programmes will deliberately reach across disciplines, sectors and institutions. As such we welcome solicited applications from across the R&D ecosystem, including individuals, universities, research institutions, small, medium and large companies, charities and public sector research organisations.

We are keen to explore structures not typical in academic research, such as supporting early career researchers as project leads or funding large (>80%) proportions of senior academics’ time so that they can focus fully on their ARIA project.

Applicants may submit multiple proposals to a funding call, provided each represents a distinct project, though they can be complementary. Each submission will be evaluated independently based on the call’s criteria, with no disadvantage to the applicant. 

More information can be found on our applicant guidance page and in our FAQs here

Objectives

See the ARIA website for more info https://www.aria.org.uk/

Dates

See the ARIA website for more info https://www.aria.org.uk/

How to apply

See the ARIA website for more info https://www.aria.org.uk/funding-opportunities

Supporting information

See the ARIA website for more info https://www.aria.org.uk/