Opportunity to Shape Advanced Research and Invention Agency programmes

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is the recently launched government research Agency, with an £800m budget to conduct high risk-high reward research to tackle the world’s biggest challenges (https://www.aria.org.uk/: https://twitter.com/ARIA_research). It’s the UK version of DARPA/ARPA in the US.

ARIA is looking for transformational ‘Moonshot’ ideas that might be too tough to tackle through more conventional funding routes. Ambitious and extraordinary ideas to tackle global challenges are what is wanted. ARIA has invited the research community to propose roundtable sessions to develop themes that may be taken forward. One can do this as an individual researcher here, with a deadline of 30 September 2022. But at Newcastle we would like to coordinate our response.

We invite you therefore to consult your colleague about potential ideas for roundtables that might be sent to ARIA. Any ideas that you’d like to take forward should be submitted as short ‘pitches’, on one or two PowerPoint slides, based around the criteria outlined on ARIA’s online form. Please also identify one or two people to take the lead on each proposal.

Please send these pitches to Ian Head, Dean of Research and Innovation for the SAgE Faculty (cc Brian Walker and Johanna Gascoigne-Owens) by Monday 12th September. Ian will then organise a session in mid-September at which pitches can be presented, shared and coordinated, and decisions can be made about which to submit to ARIA. (There is no limit on the number.)