The UK might be the most inventive country in the world. Think of all the technologies which only came about thanks to British research: the world’s first commercial jet, computers based on Charles Babbage and Alan Turing’s ideas, lithium-ion batteries which stemmed from the research of John Goodenough at Oxford. And now think of the countries that currently dominate these technologies. Britain doesn’t come to mind. Our inability to turn inventions into domestic industries is almost a disease.
Which is where the government’s new plan for an Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA) comes in. ARIA aims to ‘fund the most inspiring inventors to turn their transformational ideas into new technologies, discoveries, products and services.’ The concept was devised by Dominic Cummings who wanted a UK version of ARPA, the US Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARIA, according to the government will shape ‘the country’s efforts to build back better through innovation.
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