Ministers will announce plans tomorrow for an £800 million scientific research agency legally entitled to invest in projects that are likely to fail and which will be exempted from freedom of information laws.
New legislation will found the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or Aria, and allow it to operate as independently as possible by investing in “high-risk, high-reward” projects.
It will be exempt from rules designed to prevent taxpayers’ money from being invested in projects with little chance of success. Ministers hope that the agency, to be set up next year, will produce next-generation technology.
The project’s future was put in doubt when Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s adviser, left Downing Street after an internal power struggle. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has now
