Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)

The UK's Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) is a government research funding body modeled on DARPA. Its Safeguarded AI programme, led by Programme Director David "davidad" Dalrymple with Scientific Director Yoshua Bengio (joined Aug 2024), has committed GBP 59 million over 3-5 years to develop AI systems with mathematical safety guarantees through formal verification. The programme funds 48 projects across multiple technical areas: TA1.1 (theory, GBP 3.5M, 22 projects), TA1.2+1.3 (platform, GBP 14.2M), TA1.4 (sociotechnical, GBP 3.4M), TA2 (ML, GBP 1M Phase 1), and TA3 (applications, GBP 5.4M, 9 projects). A Nov 2025 pivot abandoned TA2 Phase 2 (GBP 18M) and cancelled TA3 Phase 2 (GBP 8.4M), expanding TA1 scope to broader mathematical assurance and adding a cybersecurity focus on formally-verified firewalls for critical infrastructure.