
UK to launch ‘high risk’ science agency
Getty ImagesThe UK is to launch a "high-risk" science agency to look for ground-breaking discoveries.The agency, Aria, will be run along the lines of US equivalents that were instrumental in the creation of the internet and GPS.Aria, which has £800m funding over four years, will have a "higher tolerance for failure than is normal", the government said.Labour said the government needed to clarify what the agency would do. The new body - the Advanced Research & Invention Agency (Aria) - would fund "high-risk, high-reward" scientific research, the government said.But the amount of funding it will get is a fraction of the money pumped into existing government research bodies such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).For 2020-21 alone, the government has allocated £10.36bn for its research