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The UK’s $1-billion bet to create technologies that change the world

It was modelled after DARPA, the hugely successful US tech funder. Can Britain’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency — ARIA — create revolutionary innovations?
By
  1. Nisha Gaind
A group portrait of six of ARIA's programme directors stood in a courtyard outside of The British Library

Some of ARIA’s programme directors (from left): Jacques Carolan, David Dalrymple, Mark Symes, Suraj Bramhavar, Gemma Bale and Jenny Read. Credit: Jessica Hallett/Nature

After a decade building quantum-computing hardware, Jacques Carolan decided he needed a change. “I wanted to work on technologies that were more directly related to human health,” he says. So in 2021, he pivoted to neuroscience with the aim of building optical technologies to understand the brain.

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Nature 633, 512-514 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02995-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 19 September 2024: An earlier version of this story wrongly described Warwick Manufacturing Group as privately funded.

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