UK Horizons: Advancing the UK’s R&D Ecosystem
The UK Horizons program seeks to supercharge the UK’s R&D ecosystem by building networks of innovators and increasing their ambition, expanding the diversity of science translation mechanisms, strengthening the UK’s philanthropic ecosystem, and building research translation strategies. See our latest press release for more information.
The Challenge
The UK is home to world-class universities and is recognised for its strength in fundamental research. However, to ultimately lead in science and technology, the UK needs to bolster its translational capabilities – pathways for the most exceptional scientists to translate their ambitious ideas into real-world impact.
This requires:
Increasing connectivity amongst scientific and technical communities, which are often isolated and siloed, to enable cross-pollination across domains, geographies, and sectors
Increasing the ambition of scientists and pushing them to think beyond the constraints of the resources available to them and the institutions they operate within which typically incentivise incremental innovation and the publication of research over high-risk, high-reward breakthroughs.
Exposing scientists to a broader range of mechanisms available to them to translate their ideas into impact beyond traditional forms of academia
Expanding access to patient and flexible capital to enable breakthrough science, and
Creating the necessary conditions for the translation of R&D e.g. creating friendly regulatory environments, strengthening markets for new innovations, and opportunities for commercialisation.
Our Approach
The UK Horizons Programme is a portfolio of ambitious initiatives working to build networks of exceptional scientists and increase their ambition, expand the diversity of science translation mechanisms, attract flexible and patient capital for scientists in the UK by strengthening the philanthropic ecosystem, and build research translation strategies.
The goals of UK Horizons include:
Talent: Cultivating communities of exceptional technical talent and increasing their ambition
Translational Mechanisms: Increasing the diversity of pathways through which scientists can translate their ideas into impact beyond legacy forms of academia
Capital: Unlocking philanthropic capital for high-risk, high-reward science
Translation: Creating the necessary conditions and environments for the translation of R&D, from strengthening commercialization pathways to regulatory support for new innovations
UK Horizons Programs
ATLAS
The Alliance of Talent Leaders Across Science (ATLAS) seeks to identify, support, and connect leaders who are cultivating technical and scientific communities across the UK.
BiTS
The Big if True Science (BiTS) Accelerator supports the development and launch of coordinated research programs. The program recruits early to mid-career research talent with big-if-true ideas that are neither a fit for venture nor for academia, helping them develop into program leaders with actionable research visions, and matches them to a host institution like ARIA, ARPA-E, ARPA-H, DARPA, or a similar non-governmental organization like Convergent Research.
CEF
The Climate Emergencies Forum (CEF) convenes scientists, policymakers, NGOs, funders, and industries like insurance and finance to drive greater awareness of catastrophic climate threats and options, enable coordination across traditional silos, and establish the scientific basis for coordinated action, informed governance, and R&D funding decisions.
Ember
Ember supports exceptional scientists and innovators in the UK to explore and advance ambitious Big If True ideas - ideas that, if validated, could have transformative implications for science within or related to ARIA’s existing or emerging opportunity spaces.
HSSG
The HSSG will assemble approximately 30 cross-disciplinary scientific experts to scan the scientific horizon for opportunities across ARIA’s current and emerging spaces.
The Higgs Community
The Higgs Community seeks to be home to the most exceptional scientists and innovators in the UK, interested in turning ambitious science into real-world impact.
A number of key initiatives of the UK Horizons program are powered by our partnership with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).