I just assumed every nation has a government funded cutting edge research institute. Crazy not to. Australia has the over 100 year old csiro for example. Paid for itself many times over (eg. viruses that kill rabbits, high tech breakthroughs like wifi, selective crop and livestock breeding).
And lots of other grant services and loans.
Most with very little in the way of measures of success... As will be the case with Aria I imagine.
There were large COVID scandals with funding directed to government ministers mates, how many of these get awarded to their mates too.
v5v3•1h ago
https://www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-spaces/
Current 'opportunity spaces' whatever that is...
>Programmable Plants. - Plants enable human life and offer solutions to key challenges like food insecurity, climate change, and environmental degradation. Programmable plants can secure our future, ensuring food and a sustainable biosphere for future generations.
>Nature Computes Better. - We can redefine the way computers process information by exploiting principles found ubiquitously in nature. In doing so, we can better understand how the natural world around us performs computation and build dramatically more efficient computers.
bee_rider•1h ago
v5v3•57m ago
The Prime minister and Chancellor spend their time going cap in hand to BlackRock and others begging for money.
One spends money on speculative projects when they have money to spare.
tom_•56m ago
tim333•53m ago
v5v3•39m ago
BlackRock as one example https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/blackrock-urges-uks-starmer-...
UK stock market has failed https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/are-uk-stock-markets-facin...
Now 10th in world for gdp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PP...
Prisons declared full, shoplifting pseudo-legalised. I could go on and on.
40% of the worlds dirty money goes through UK. It's USP is now mainly money laundering
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/dirty-money-laundering...
neepi•31m ago
v5v3•12m ago
You could have created a unicorn company by now my friend, but instead you are writing python code in excel, or automating regulatory submissions and investor communications or something else similar.
v5v3•30m ago
It is brutal
https://x.com/LBC/status/1701292018037825571?t=WMi0Hys_vnYfj...
brokencode•34m ago
These types of highly speculative projects are inherently risky, making them unappealing for profit-driven investors. That’s why it’s important for non-profit organizations and governments to fund them.
Scientific breakthroughs don’t happen in a vacuum. They are the product of dedicated research requiring years of consistent funding.
v5v3•22m ago
You say the UK has a budget of a trillion, but around 70% comes from consumer spending. As consumers have been hooked on debt and hit with annual increases in every indirect tax they can think of.
brokencode•13m ago
But I don’t think the 0.08% line item for scientific research is where I’d start.
Science is already deeply underfunded despite a disproportionately large impact on society in my opinion.
beej71•7m ago
thrance•22m ago