Making a new ARPA-style agency work in the UK
Summary of contents
The UK government plans to invest £800m of public funding by 2024-25 to support high-risk, high-reward research that brings about transformative change to the benefit of the UK economy and society. It is modelled after the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA) set up in the late 1950s.
Drawing on evidence from a workshop with members of our R&D Landscape Collective, we recommend that the proposed new UK funding agency be carefully integrated into the existing research and innovation landscape, have the flexibility to invest on timescales beyond parliamentary horizons, and embed inclusion and diversity in its practices and procedures from the outset.