ARIA shakes up its opportunity spaces
As ARIA heads into its fourth year of operation – and prepares to recruit a third cohort of programme directors – chief executive Kathleen Fisher has announced a revised approach to its use of “opportunity spaces” to delineate its areas of interest.
In a post on the funder’s Substack, Fisher describes opportunity spaces as the “strategic frontiers where we believe breakthroughs could fundamentally expand what becomes possible.” Previously, new programme directors had begun their tenures at ARIA by defining a space, and subsequently building programmes of research within it. Examples including Scoping Our Planet, which seeks to use frontier technologies to improve the measurement and modelling of weather and climate, and Nature Computes Better, which aimed to use principles from the natural world to redefine how computers process information.
Now, the funder has refined its model so that opportunity spaces are defined in advance of the recruitment of new programme directors (applications open on 17 August, and close on 28 September – the new cohort will begin in May 2027).
Seven “highly interdisciplinary” opportunity spaces have been defined: Programmable Physiology, Scalable Neural Interfaces, Trust Everything Everywhere, Nature-Inspired Computation, Adaptive Machines, Resilient Climate and Ecosystems, and Abundant Manufacturing. These generally incorporate existing opportunity spaces which were set up by programme directors from earlier years – for example, the Adaptive Machines space includes Scoping Our Planet as well as the Smarter Robot Bodies space.
Fisher explains that, since starting in her role earlier this year, it has become clear to her that programme directors were converging on “the same enabling technologies, engineering challenges and scientific capabilities,” adding that “what first appeared to be distinct opportunities increasingly revealed themselves as connected frontiers.”
The change in approach doesn’t impact on existing programmes or funding commitments – but is intended to give future programme directors a “clearer view” of the scientific frontiers which ARIA believes are most important.
Elsewhere, ARIA’s corporate plan for 2026 gives updates on its plans in other funding areas. It intends to welcome eight to ten more “activation partners”, following a call earlier this year – these are organisations focused on science and technology translation, which in the latest round has a particular emphasis on AI for science.
The plan also speaks to research community concerns about the high proportion of ARIA’s funding thus far which has been concentrated in the east and southeast of England. In addition to launching a “structured series of engagement” across all regions of the UK, the funder also promises that new programmes will not be approved unless they have demonstrated meaningful engagement in discovery across all regions and nations of the UK.