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Have your say on the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill

24 March 2021

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Do you have relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill 2019-21, which is currently passing through Parliament?
If so, you can submit your views in writing to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider this Bill.

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration.

The Public Bill Committee will scrutinise the Bill line by line. The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee will be on Wednesday 14 April and the Committee is scheduled to report by Tuesday 27 April However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 27 April. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Aims of the Bill

The Bill seeks to establish a new research funding agency specifically aimed at providing long-term support for “high-risk, high-pay off” “blue-skies research”. The term ‘blue-skies research’ has been used to refer to research endeavours that do not always have an obvious and immediate ‘real world’ application but that have the potential to be ground-breaking. The proposed new agency is “broadly modelled on the US Advanced Research Projects Agency”, a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense (now known as DARPA). The Bill is sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

In the March 2020 Budget, the Chancellor announced that the UK Government would invest “at least £800 million” in this new agency as part of the Government’s wider commitment to increase public research and development (R&D) funding to £22bn by 2024-25 and increase overall UK spending on R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

As introduced, the Bill does several things: first, it establishes the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as a statutory corporation. Second, it sets out ARIA’s functions. These are focused on both conducting “ambitious” scientific research with a tolerance to failure, and on developing, exploiting and sharing scientific knowledge, such as translating basic scientific research into more commercial technologies. Third, the Bill enables the Secretary of State to make grants to ARIA and provide it with funding.

The Bill is divided into 15 Clauses and has 3 Schedules. The main clauses are as follows:

  • Clause 1 establishes ARIA as a “body corporate”.
  • Clause 2 describes ARIA’s functions as conducting and commissioning scientific research, sharing findings, and exploiting scientific knowledge (and/or supporting others to undertake these functions).
  • Clause 3 allows ARIA to undertake “ambitious” research projects whilst also having a high tolerance to project failure.
  • Clause 4 covers ARIA’s funding and enables the Secretary of State to make grants to ARIA, with Clause 7 permitting the transfer of staff and property, rights and liabilities to ARIA.
  • Clause 5 sets out that ARIA must comply with any national security directions given by the Secretary of State, while Clause 6 stipulates when ARIA must provide information requested by the Secretary of State.
  • Clause 8 allows for the dissolution of ARIA after ten years have elapsed since the passing of the Bill.
  • Clause 10 allows the Secretary of State to modify other legislation in line with any provision in the ARIA Act.

The Bill applies to the whole of the United Kingdom. Supporting scientific research and development sit within the legislative competence of the devolved nations, although specific reservations do exist. Clauses 1-4, 6-8, 10-12 and Schedules 1 and 2 all require legislative consent motions with respect to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Follow the progress of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill 2019–21 was introduced to the House of Commons on 9 March 2021. Second reading was held on 23 March 2021.

Oral evidence sessions are expected to be held on 14 April 2021.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee will be Wednesday 14 April 2021 and the Committee is scheduled to report by Thursday 27 April 2021. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 27 April 2021. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here.

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