UK Horizons: Top Team Assigned to Strengthen UK's R&D Ecosystem
The UK Horizons program seeks to supercharge the UK’s R&D ecosystem.
LONDON, UK - In October 2024, Renaissance Philanthropy announced its partnership with the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK government agency which funds breakthrough R&D in underexplored areas to catalyze new paths to prosperity for the UK and the world.
As an Activation Partner to ARIA, Renaissance Philanthropy is leveraging its expertise in raising the ambition of scientists, innovators, and philanthropists to strengthen the UK's R&D ecosystem and unlock breakthroughs through the UK Horizons Program. This program will leverage Renaissance Philanthropy's expertise in raising the ambition of scientists, innovators, and philanthropists and enabling the translation of R&D to unlock breakthroughs that benefit society.
In particular, Renaissance Philanthropy, seeks to strengthen the UK’s translational capabilities – pathways for the most exceptional scientists to translate their ambitious ideas into real-world impact. This involves: increasing connectivity and collaboration amongst scientific and technical communities across domains, geographies, and sectors; increasing the ambition of scientists; exposing scientists to a broader range of pathways available to them to create impact; expanding access to patient and flexible capital; and creating the necessary conditions for the translation of R&D from strengthening markets for new innovations to building coalitions of stakeholders across sectors.
Over the past six months, Renaissance Philanthropy has recruited a team of leaders from pioneering organizations in science and technology—including Entrepreneur First, Deep Science Ventures, Convergent Research, Open Philanthropy, Good Science Project, and DARPA – to design and incubate a portfolio of initiatives aligned with the following core goals:
Talent: cultivating communities of exceptional technical talent and increasing their ambition
Translation: increasing the diversity pathways for scientists to translate their ideas into impact beyond academia
Capital: Unlocking philanthropic capital for high-risk, high-reward science
Adoption: Creating the necessary conditions and environments for the translation of R&D, from strengthening commercialization pathways to regulatory support for new innovations
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing a new set of initiatives under the UK Horizons program starting with the launch of our first effort tomorrow, ATLAS, focused on identifying, supporting, and connecting leaders who are cultivating technical and scientific communities across the UK.
Members supporting the UK Horizons program include:
Aleš Flídr: Aleš previously led Convergent Research’s biosecurity program, focusing on clinical metagenomics and far-UVC for pandemic mitigation. He has worked in science communications at DeepMind, supported COVID-19 policy in Czechia, and serves as president of Panoplia Labs, a nonprofit advancing broad-spectrum antivirals.
Antonia Theodorakopoulou: Antonia co-directed $2M in pre-seed investments as a VC and founded two biotech companies backed by Blackstone and top European VCs. She holds a BSc and MSc in Chemistry from King’s College London and has earned multiple awards for her technical and leadership achievements in biotech.
Eirini Malliaraki: Eirini has worked at the intersection of technology and social impact across academia, research labs, and startups. As Head of Product at Deep Science Ventures, she built AI-powered tools that helped launch 15+ companies in agriculture, climate, computing, and therapeutics. She previously founded Filisia, an award-winning edtech startup that scaled to thousands of users in 35+ countries.
Emma Cappiello: Emma Cappiello was a Manager and Special Advisor at Schmidt Futures, where she oversaw a $110M portfolio of 10+ programs supporting global talent. She has helped launch and scale fellowships like Summit Fellows and Summit Impact, supporting 100+ entrepreneurs worldwide.
Eric Gilliam: Eric was a Fellow at the Good Science Project with a political science degree from Stanford. He previously worked with economist Steve Levitt at the University of Chicago, focusing on research that informs decision-making for new science organizations.
Erik Martin: Erik has built teams and programs across government, industry, and civil society, most recently helping establish the Office of Technology at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as Senior Advisor to the CTO. Previously, he launched the Day One Project and Impact Fellowship at the Federation of American Scientists, worked with Democracy Fund’s Digital Democracy Initiative, and served as a Policy Advisor in the Obama Administration.
Jean-Paul Chretien: JP served as a Program Manager at DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, overseeing $300M+ in funding and leading DARPA’s first biomedical Grand Challenge. He spearheaded a multi-organization research effort to develop an integrated medical product and played a key role in multiple FDA engagements, including first-in-human studies and an Emergency Use Authorization during COVID-19.
Joshua Elliot: Joshua served as a Program Manager at DARPA in the Information Innovation Office where he programmed almost $600M in federal R&D funding across 9 programs. He also spent time as a Programme Director at Quadrature Climate Foundation (leading strategies on solar radiation management, CO2 removals and vulnerability and resilience) and created a skunkworks to accelerate innovation within Project InnerSpace.
Lauren Gilbert: Lauren was a research fellow at Open Philanthropy and is a Roots of Progress Fellow with work published in Works in Progress, Asterisk Magazine, and The Washington Post. She holds a PhD in political science from UCSD, an MS in physics from UCSD, and a BS in physics from Caltech.
Louise Dunsby: Louise is a former Senior Civil Servant and Chartered Engineer (IET) who led major UK science and technology initiatives, including establishing the Office for Science and Technology Strategy and the National Science and Technology Council. She previously served as a sea-going engineering officer and marine electrical surveyor.
Ronit Kanwar: Ronit was the Director of Partnerships at Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt, where he designed and launched signature partnerships with the UK Government on institutional innovation within science and on talent; incubated P150 (a community of philanthropic advisors to UHNWIs) which has unlocked $500M+ of philanthropic capital; and unlocked over $350M in co-funding.
Seyi Oluwasanmi: Seyi previously worked in Platform & Operations at Entrepreneur First, supporting early-stage founders. Before that, he helped scale an AI company through its acquisition, leading operations and customer experience. He holds an MA in Business with Enterprise and Innovation from the University of Edinburgh.
For more information about UK Horizons and its initiatives, contact media@renphil.org.