Early Warning Signs Emerge For U.K.’s New Innovation Office

A recent Financial Times profile of the U.K.’s newest scientific innovation office has garnered attention, and rightly so. Modeled after the U.S.’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), ambitions for the U.K.’s ARIA (Advanced Research and Invention Agency) are high. Its aims are nothing short of transforming science by stimulating revolutionary technologies. Yet the foundation the agency is built upon is already beginning to show some cracks.

Ilar Gur is the new chief executive of ARIA, and he has clearly indicated that the agency’s destiny will be significantly determined by its eight newly-appointed program directors. With each of these directors wielding control over a formidable £50 million purse, a lot hinges on these individuals having not just good, but exceptional, judgment. One would hope therefore that an impeccable hiring process was followed. However, the first ARIA chief executive stepped down before even beginning the role, hinting at administrative challenges.