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Charlotte Stonestreet
Managing Editor |
Innovation heavyweights appointed to lead ARIA
19 July 2022
ILAN GUR has been appointed as Chief Executive of the UK’s new Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). Gur will set the agency’s agenda, direct its initial funding of high-risk programmes, build an exceptional team of Programme Managers and engage the domestic and international R&D sector. Talent investor and entrepreneur Matt Clifford, has been appointed as ARIA’s Chairman, and will support the work of the CEO, acting as the steward for ARIA’s effective governance.

ARIA will enable exceptional scientists and researchers to identify and fund transformational research that leads to new technologies, discoveries, products and services – helping to maintain the UK’s position as a global science superpower and attracting top talent to our shores to grow the economy, boost prosperity and develop the breakthroughs of the future.
Gur built his career managing cutting-edge research and innovation for the benefit of society, predominantly in his role as founder and CEO of non-profit organisation Activate, a US-based organisation which empowers scientists and engineers to bring ground-breaking research to market. Activate has supported 142 fellows and catalysed the creation of over 100 science-based start-ups under Gur’s expert leadership.
Gur has also established two science-based start-ups, and served in the first generation of Programme Directors at ARPA-E, the US Department of Energy’s agency for funding breakthrough innovations in energy technology.
The government set out plans to create ARIA in February 2021 to fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research, and maintain the UK’s position as a science superpower, with the ARIA Act receiving Royal Assent in February 2022. The Agency is expected to be established later this year.
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