ARIA funding opportunity - Nature Computes Better

25/01/2024

19/02/2024

ARIA has opened their first funding opportunity: a seed funding call under the Nature Computes Better programme. ARIA will fund high potential proposals, with awards between £10k and £500k each, and initially expect to fund up to 10 projects in this space. The funder is looking for bold ideas that could challenge assumptions, open up new research paths, or provide steps towards new capabilities.

In Scope: · Ideas that sit within the Nature Computes Better opportunity space. Your proposal should show how your idea either aligns with or challenges the assumptions of the Summary, Beliefs, or Observations in the opportunity space document. · Ideas that could change the conversation about what is possible or valuable. · Ideas that range from early stage fundamental research through to pre-commercial science and technology. Out of scope: · Ideas that relate directly to Suraj Bramhavar’s goal of Unlocking AI Compute Hardware at 1/1000th the Cost, as described in his programme thesis. If you are unsure about whether your idea fits into Suraj’s Programme thesis, ask ARIA by submitting a question using the messaging function within ARIA’s application portal. · Ideas that are undifferentiated or that are likely to happen without ARIA support. · Commercial or close-to-commercial stage products.

Any application hosted by the University will need to follow standard approval processes. There are two possibilities for submitting to ARIA: i) as an individual ii) through an organisation. It is strongly encouraged that University staff follow the second route (although there may be some cases where people apply for time when not employed by UCAM and using their own resources). When submitting the application as part of the University of Cambridge: · As there is a 24-day turnaround at award stage, it is essential that any issues are cleared up before submission of the application. · Applications should go through departmental teams and if approved at department level, should come to ROO for institutional level checks / approval - regardless of the statement in the call that organisational consent is not required at submission stage. We cannot guarantee to implement any awards that do not go through the appropriate channels. · Any subcontractors should go through normal vetting processes prior to submission of the application. · An X5 or Worktribe costing is required by the University at application stage.