ARIA

Advanced Research + Invention Agency.

Empowering scientists to reach for the edge of the possible.

[Jacques Carolan @JacquesCarolan]

I had an absolute blast chatting with @juanbenet about the future of neurotech.

For neurotech to reach everyone who needs it, we need treatments that are both more effective and dramatically easier to deliver. That’s the ambition behind the programmes I’m leading at @ARIA_research.

Juan is a super thoughtful host, and this is the deepest conversation I've had about my journey, what it means to lead ambitious R&D, and the future we could unlock if next-generation brain therapies can genuinely scale.

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

🌍 From the Lab to the World

This month, on her 100th day in the role, we ask Kathleen, ARIA CEO, what she's learned about ARIA, the UK, and what it actually takes to turn science into transformational societal benefits.

Dive into this month’s updates, including:
- Funding, opportunities, and events across ARIA
- Catalysing ideas into impact: building the future of neurotechnology with Cambridge Neuroworks
- Smarter Robot Bodies, one year on: notes from our annual gathering
- Frontier reads — from a programmable reaction-diffusion system to protein energy landscapes

Read the full piece and subscribe to stay up to date: https://t.co/ScCTgDowdL

[Juan Benet @juanbenet]

Episode 3 of my new podcast features Dr. Jacques Carolan (@JacquesCarolan), a founding Program Director at ARIA (@ARIA_research), the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He directs two neurotech programs aimed at one of the most important opportunity spaces: developing tools and systems to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

One program is built on the idea that brain disorders are circuit problems, and funds tools to target those circuits with molecular precision across the whole brain. The other aims to deliver high-performance neurotech to the brain non-invasively or at most in a 30-minute outpatient procedure.

We dig into the engineering and biology behind both programs, potential scaling unlocks for the field, how ARIA programs drive breakthroughs, Jacques background, the role of media in shaping the future, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Other links to this episode and references below.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:22 Why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven't reached patients
00:04:08 The two variables that determine whether any medical technology gets adopted
00:09:17 Brain disorders cost the UK £100B/year and we're barely treating them
00:16:15 Using stem cells and gene therapy to build better brain interfaces
00:21:40 Self-regulating gene therapy that helps the brain quiet its own seizures
00:24:03 The non-technical reasons transformative neurotech fail to reach patients
00:31:34 Watching a 30-second brain ablation stop severe tremors
00:38:11 The case for delivering brain implants and therapies without opening the skull
00:50:56 Why high technical uncertainty makes distributed teams better than vertical integration
01:02:55 Why the UK keeps producing world-class neuroscience but not world-class neurotech companies
01:11:04 What AI-driven hypothesis generation means for breakthroughs per pound
01:20:40 From quantum computing to improv comedy to running £119M government brain programs

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

We are seeking teams to test whether AI-enabled formal methods can make high-assurance cyber defense practical, at scale.

As part of our Safeguarded AI programme, we are looking to fund teams to build production-grade software components backed by machine-checked proofs and validated through coordinated red-team exercises.

We welcome applications from startups, industry and academia.

⏳ Apply before 1 July, 14:00 BST. https://t.co/5bw0du66OU

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

⏰ Last chance!

We’re hiring a Science and Technology Lead for our Smarter Robot Bodies opportunity space.

Working with Programme Director Jenny Read, you’ll help shape a new programme exploring more efficient robot locomotion.

We’re looking for a roboticist with expertise in robot locomotion, including hardware + simulation.

📅 Applications due this Sunday, 17 May!

Find out more and apply: https://t.co/GVjL5MUNCw

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

Two years ago, we funded Fractile as part of our Scaling Compute programme.

Today, Fractile have announced a $220M funding round to build the next generation of inference hardware.

Huge congratulations to Walter and the team. We can't wait to see what you do next 🚀

[Walter Goodwin @goodwin_ml]

I am thrilled to share the news that Fractile's mission to build chips and systems that unlock the next generation of AI scaling has been bolstered, with a $220M funding round led by Accel, Factorial Funds, and Founders Fund, alongside some incredible backers old and new.

AI inference is driving the defining infrastructure buildout of the 21st Century. We've written a bit about where we think capabilities must go, and how Fractile is working to bring this about: https://t.co/L3VTjJjLuL

It has been a privilege working on one of the hardest but most rewarding technical challenges of our time for over three years, with the most brilliant, kind and driven people I could have ever hoped to work alongside.

We are still just getting started. There is a lot to be done to deliver on our goals, but we are grateful to have the support of so many people in chasing these down every minute of every day. Thanks, all, for being part of the Fractile mission! 🚀

@fractile_ai

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

Highly ambitious, technical breakthroughs rarely arrive fully formed. They’re often born out of half-articulated thoughts – whispers in the university library, debates over lunch, or musings on the walk home.

Our Innovator Circles initiative was designed to support these environments: high-trust, self-organised technical peer groups where people can test ideas early, raise each other’s ambition, and pursue ideas that could underpin the next world-changing breakthroughs.

Find out more about cohort one.
https://t.co/94x7ukkyLz

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

🚀 Breakthroughs don’t create impact on their own — systems do.

Our Activation Partners help unlock ideas, build talent, and turn frontier R&D into real-world outcomes.

We’re now recruiting a new cohort (up to £100m total).

If you’re building at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, systems change, and the next wave of AI capabilities, apply before 21 May.

https://t.co/P2LxAZzhbS

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

⏰ No time for stasis: using time as a design principle

How do you design research to keep moving?

Dive into:

- Funding, opportunities, and events across ARIA
- Term-limited by design: how our Programme Director model creates urgency and momentum
- New UK FROs: meet Echo Labs and Meridial, tackling critical bottlenecks in ecology and neuroscience
- From research to trials: early progress in our Precision Neurotechnologies programme, translating research into real-world studies
- Frontier reads — from reading proteins like DNA to safer paths for AI development

Read the full piece and subscribe to stay up to date: https://t.co/xYSx0OS5xC

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

We are seeking a commercial operating partner to support the delivery of our R&D programmes and help improve how we operate.

The partner will act as an embedded extension of ARIA, providing and managing programme delivery capability, working closely with Programme Directors, operational teams, and ARIA Creators, and enhancing our Portfolio Management Office to strengthen oversight and decision-making.

📅 Webinar 26 May: https://t.co/feCrJao3uB

⏰ Proposal deadline: 16 June (14:00 BST)
Find out more: https://t.co/rYCKsWtmnb

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

🚨 Final call: We’re looking for a communications and engagement partner with strong strategic and creative capabilities to work alongside our internal team.

The selected partner will help deliver a multi-channel, owned and earned engagement approach that enhances ARIA’s visibility, strengthens our narrative, and amplifies the impact of our programmes.

⏰ Deadline: 1 May

Find out more and apply: https://t.co/rYCKsWtmnb

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

🚀 We’re hiring: Science & Technology Leads at ARIA

As a Science & Technology Lead at ARIA, you won’t just support research, you’ll help shape it. You’ll work with Programme Directors and world-class partners to turn breakthrough ideas into reality.

This is a role for people who thrive in ambiguity, connect ideas across disciplines, and want to catalyse technologies that could transform industries — and the world.

We’re currently recruiting in the following opportunity spaces:
- Mathematics for Safe AI
- Nature Computes Better
- Trust Everything, Everywhere
- Smarter Robot Bodies

If you want to help turn today’s ambitious ideas into tomorrow’s breakthroughs, we’d love to hear from you.
👉 Apply here: https://t.co/b5gnZjE2AF

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

AI can now describe images, compose music, and predict protein structures, but it still can’t smell. What if we could give machines a sense of smell, making the chemical world computationally legible?

Our new programme thesis, Hypersensory Intelligence: Olfactory Perception, explores how advances in AI, sensing technologies, and chemistry could be combined to build a general-purpose olfactory perception system, unlocking applications from early disease detection to reducing the $1 trillion annual cost of food waste.

Dive into the thesis and give feedback: https://t.co/0q8Rkr05Gn

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

We need new ways to organise science.

Not just new ideas, but new kinds of organisations, built around the problems that hold whole fields back.

Together with our Activation Partner @Convergent_FROs, we’ve launched two new Focused Research Organisations (FROs) in the UK: @Meridial_Neuro and @EchoLabsFRO.

These are time-bound, mission-driven teams designed to build shared scientific infrastructure.

Find out more: https://t.co/VAg22OiUKI

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

We’re hiring a Chief Science & Technology Officer.

This is a senior leadership role focused on ensuring we remain the best place in the world for technical leaders to develop and make lasting contributions to society.

As CSTO, you’ll mentor and guide our Programme Directors, shape our technical culture, and help attract bold new talent and ideas. You’ll challenge thinking across all stages of programme development and support the strategy behind ambitious, world-changing programmes.

Learn more and apply: https://t.co/ns2jvsnKhw

Careers at ARIA: https://t.co/b5gnZjE2AF

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

🚀 We’re looking for partners for ARIA’s Enduring Atmospheric Platforms programme, which focuses on de-risking low-cost, long-endurance, high-altitude aircraft to enable scalable, regional communications.

We need:
- Aerospace test sites & facilities
- Field testing support & consultancy
- Independent verification & validation

Help teams safely fly experimental platforms, maintain station above commercial aviation, and pass the programme’s Final Exam: continuously delivering 300W to a 20kg payload for a full week.

Deadline: 22 May (14:00 BST)

Find out more: https://t.co/reMIWFwxBl

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

"Every year, thousands of people walk the Yorkshire Three Peaks. Humans can cross mud, rocks, or steps, in rain or shine. Ask a robot to do comparable work, and the gap between today’s machines and biology becomes obvious. Animals still outperform robots on the combination of agility, range, and robustness that real-world locomotion demands."

Jenny Read reveals her thinking about a potential second programme in the Smarter Robot Bodies opportunity space in a new blog.

Read the full piece.
https://t.co/qVXhWipR2k

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

Full proposals are now open for our Massively Scalable Neurotechnologies programme.

Led by @JacquesCarolan, we are investing £50m to develop a new class of neurotech – interfaces that reach the brain via the body’s natural pathways.

Submit by 11 May: https://t.co/T1oMt6kulN

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

⚒️ As ARIA continues to build operational maturity, we’re preparing to re-tender our Programmatic & Operational Support Partner contract – a core function embedded within our team.

The strategic partner will work alongside us over an initial term to:
- Provide dedicated project management and PMO capability across our programme portfolio
- Support Programme Directors to deliver ambitious, high-risk, high-reward initiatives
- Strengthen planning, reporting and governance across ARIA
- Provide flexible operational support across our central team as we scale

Join our pre-launch market briefing with Q&A tomorrow at 11.30am to find out more.

https://t.co/Hg3KI3nYOT

[ARIA @ARIA_research]

When @davidad launched the Safeguarded AI programme, he brought a distinctive and ambitious technical vision for how we build safety into transformational AI systems. He also brought in @AmmannNora as the programme’s Technical Specialist — and they’ve been building it together ever since.

Today, Nora Ammann steps into the role of Programme Director.

Nora brings deep technical grounding, strong ties across our Creator ecosystem, and her own vision for where the programme goes from here.

davidad, will continue to support the programme as Technical Advisor while pursuing independent research into moral philosophy for AI systems

At ARIA, this kind of transition is the point – not the exception. Time-limited Programme Director roles create urgency, keep programmes focused, and bring fresh thinking as the work evolves.

🎥 Nora and davidad sat down with our CEO, Kathleen Fisher, to talk through the journey so far and what's ahead.

🔗 https://t.co/JyZnoIP9ti