UK version of ARPA will provide long-term funding to tackle big societal challenges

The new proposed agency is said to be the brainchild of Dominic Cummings, adviser to Boris Johnson

New details of the UK version of American Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) have emerged, suggesting that the proposed agency would provide longer term funding to researchers "to tackle really big societal challenges."

In a meeting held by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in September, Dominic Cummings, adviser to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, met several academics to discuss the UK ARPA, according to New Scientist.

UK ARPA is said to be the brainchild of Cummings, who has been keen on the idea for the past couple of years.

In a blog post published in 2017, Cummings stressed that as the UK gets ready to exit the European Union in coming years, it should also consider establishing a new ARPA-style agency to enable even a small group of people to make big breakthroughs in the field of science, with little funding.

An aspiration to create the new research funding agency also appeared in the Queen's speech in October. The government said it is committed to set up UK ARPA to advance science research in the country.

The US ARPA was established in 1958 by President Eisenhower in response to the USSR's surprise launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The US ARPA, which was later renamed as DARPA, had some early major successes, including the foundations of the internet and the precursor to GPS technology.

New Scientist recently says it recently obtained some new documents through the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, which reveal the scope and ambitions of the proposed agency.

The documents show that UK ARPA will be set up as a distinctive entity to have agility and autonomy. Its primary purpose will be to provide long-term funding to the best academics and researchers working in emerging fields where the risks are high, but outcomes are uncertain.

The agency will not focus on any particular area of research - in contrast to the broad defence focus of US ARPA.

"UK ARPA will have a higher risk appetite than other funding agencies, expecting and tolerating a certain rate of failure in its projects and initiatives," officials wrote in a discussion paper.

The agency will prefer providing sustained funding to a small number of project teams working on broad "missions" over periods of 5-15 years.

"UK ARPA will nurture and develop research communities in emerging fields of research in the UK, supporting their development into established new fields," the paper reads.

"These will be largely focussed on basic research but may have a technological focus. They will generally be far from market at the outset."