Meet the Inaugural FRCL Founders: Building Applied, Ambitious R&D Organisations in the UK

Dec 1

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural founders selected for the Frontier Research Contractor Launchpad (FRCL), powered by our Activation Partnership with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as part of the UK Horizons programme.

The FRCL exists to build a new class of ambitious, applied R&D organisations in the UK: Frontier Research Contractors (FRCs). Building on the excellent work of Eric Gilliam and his call for more BBN-type contractors, these organisations blend the technical ambition of world-class research labs with the operational flexibility of startups.

They pursue technically audacious visions that often, if right, could even shape entirely new scientific subfields or industries, while also doing practical work to build products, services, and tools that customers value today. It is rare to find teams capable of both, but this cohort embodies that blend of ambition and pragmatism.

This year’s cohort represents five exceptional teams working to accelerate ARIA’s opportunity spaces across biology, physics, AI, mathematics, and plant engineering – a group of curious, intensely practical people building organisations that can create engines of progress. Each will receive funding, strategic support, and access to FRCL’s curriculum and network to help build self-sustaining, technically ambitious organisations.