The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) risks operating like “a castle in the desert” without a more stable innovation ecosystem in the UK, leading economist Mariana Mazzucato has warned.
The £800 million independent agency, which aims to fund risky early-stage blue-sky research, is slowly emerging from the shadows following years of anticipation – with its chief executive Ilan Gur speaking publicly for the first time, and the recent appointment of its programme directors.
Aria is envisaged as the UK’s own version of the highly successful US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which was the focus of much of Professor Mazzucato’s first book, The Entrepreneurial State, Debunking Public Vs Private Sector Myths.
On the 10th anniversary of that book, she told Times Higher Education that the difference between the two agencies so far is that Darpa does not act on its own, but is part of a dynamic US innovation ecosystem.
