Funding at the Frontier - South Korea: hosted by the British Embassy in Seoul and ARIA

Funding at the Frontier: ARIA in Seoul

The UK's Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) is coming to Seoul — and we're partnering with the British Embassy Seoul to introduce ARIA to Korea's research and start-up communities.

Join us at Aston Hall for a mid-morning session on how ambitious science gets funded, and on the opportunities ARIA is opening to teams in Korea — from large-scale research grants to the chance to design and lead your own ~£50M programme.

Over coffee and pastries, we'll give a short introduction to ARIA and its upcoming opportunities, followed by Q&A and dedicated time to connect with the ARIA team and the local research community.

What is ARIA?

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is the UK's high-risk, high-reward R&D funding agency, created to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs by backing research that is too ambitious, speculative, or interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere. ARIA designs and funds research programmes of around £50M, running over three to five years and open to teams anywhere in the world.

ARIA funds high-risk R&D for both academics and startups, and its funding is open to research teams anywhere in the world — including here in South Korea. Members of ARIA's team will be in the room, alongside South Korea's deep-tech and life-science community.

ARIA operates through Programme Directors: exceptional scientific and technical leaders who spot overlooked opportunities, define bold technical visions, and bring together the people and projects needed to pursue them.

Opportunities we'll cover

Core R&D funding — large-scale grants of up to £10M per team, for laboratories and consortiums capable of hitting aggressive technical milestones.

Programme Director roles — three-year terms to design and lead your own global, ~£50M research programme with full operational autonomy.

Seed funding — fast-tracked grants for highly speculative, early-stage technical concepts.

ARIA is also about to open recruitment for its third cohort of Programme Directors — applications open in August 2026 for a May 2027 start.

Who should attend

Scientists, principal investigators, and academics leading ambitious research

Founders and technical leaders in Korea's deep-tech and start-up ecosystem

Anyone interested in ARIA's funding opportunities or in becoming a future ARIA Programme Director

Schedule

10:00-10:30 | Arrival, coffee & pastries

10:30-10:40 | Welcome from the British Embassy Seoul

10:40-11:15 | Introduction to ARIA: funding opportunities and Programme Director roles

11:15-12:00 | Networking

Speakers

Dr. Maximilian Sichrovsky (Science and Technology Lead @ ARIA): Trained as a biochemist, Max’s doctoral research at Cambridge focused on mitochondrial biology. As Science and Technology Lead for ARIA's Precision Mitochondria programme, he works to identify, evaluate, and support the scientific ideas behind the programme's goal of making the mitochondrial genome programmable. Before joining ARIA, he was part of the early-stage biotech ecosystem through Nucleate and the 5050 Venture Fellowship.

Dr. Alice Pettitt (Frontier Specialist @ ARIA): A biochemist by training, Alice work across the organisation to enhance ARIA's capabilities in identifying and developing new programmes. Alice was previously part of Creator Fund, a Deep-tech VC investing in PhD, academic, and student founders across the UK and Europe at pre-seed and seed.