UK 'invention agency' awards £50m to US tech and VC firms
techMay 3, 20261848
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has pledged about £50 million of UK public R&D funding to 14 US technology companies and venture capital groups, The Guardian reports. Those awards account for more than one-eighth of ARIA's roughly £400 million research budget over the past two years, and in some cases recipients were incorporated only days before receiving the grants. ARIA was created as a Dominic Cummings initiative to back high-risk 'crazy' science and was initially exempted from freedom-of-information rules. The allocations shift UK public investment overseas, limit direct returns for British taxpayers and reduce support for home-grown firms.