Ilan Gur
We have a guest post today from Ilan Gur, the CEO of the UK government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
ARIA was set up in 2023 to fund cutting edge research, but there has been relatively little coverage of what it’s actually doing. The one thing that has cut through recently is ARIA’s funding of some small geoengineering experiments. This has been written up by some outlets, in a sensationalist fashion, as a “secret government plan to dim the sun” (you can read about the actual work and safeguards here).
We thought it would be of interest to readers to give Ilan the space to set out some other work ARIA is engaged in, as well as setting out some of the barriers to success.
Prior to ARIA, Ilan founded two deeptech startups and served as a Programme Director at ARPA-E, the US government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for cutting-edge energy technologies. He is also the founder of Activate.org, a US-based non-profit that supports scientists and engineers in bringing groundbreaking research to market.
Two and a half years ago, I moved from Silicon Valley to the UK to take on the role of leading the government’s newly created Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
I joined because of the enormous, inspiring ambition underpinning the project: to unlock breakthroughs in science and technology that can drive a step change in economic growth and social prosperity, for Britain and the world.
Our team has since been working to develop a new model for UK innovation. Drawing inspiration from the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which catalysed the internet, mRNA vaccines, personal computing, and GPS – we are adapting the best parts of a proven model to the strengths and opportunities of Britain.
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