Surprised there wasn’t already something like this!

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).

A step in the right direction.

Wish the UK would have their version of the SBIR/STTR program too -- and open to all, not just Oxbridge and other elites. Mandatory small business set-asides, especially for large defense procurement, has outsized effects on innovation.

NPL used to do smart stuff. Daresbury also. SERC funded work I did in the 80s was a bit downstream of revolutionary. Good to try, good to fund but you have to be prepared to fail spectacularly and at great expense. DARPA has funding resiliency for that. People don't always talk about what didn't work, and cost a lot of money. The fifth generation and alvey comes to mind.

Definitely a step in the right direction for the UK, a nation that has historically been full of inventors.

One of the most important factors for ARIA’s success will be whether its leadership can protect a culture that accepts that some bets won’t pay off until after their term ends. Short-termism plagues government leadership roles, and it's exactly the kind of thing that could kill a program like this.

In other words, pick bold leaders that don't have an ego.

What are the market incentives here? Does ARIA work like any other VC that would take equity in exchange for funding?

Admirable but ultimately I suspect this will come to nothing. Sadly government attention is fleeting, R&D is far, far, down the list in terms of the national priorities (NHS is always top, the national religion with fanatical supporters). Take nuclear power for instance. The world has about 800 research/test reactors. About 250 are currently in-use. 0 of them are in the UK. This kind of statistic can be repeated over and over for any given area of research. I no-longer believe the barriers are financial, it is the regulatory ones that are hardest to remove. Goes for any physical endeavour here. Be it furnace or foundry, reactor or rocketry.