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VERSION:2.0
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CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:ARIA Lunch and Mingle
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
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DTSTAMP:20260910T043211Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_53613625344207
DTSTART:20260813T150000Z
DTEND:20260813T180000Z
DESCRIPTION:Join for this meetup in The Node to hear directly from the lead
 ership team at ARIA (Advanced Research + Invention Agency)\, the UK's brea
 kthrough R&D funding agency. Meet the ARIA team including Programme Direct
 ors (those who design a R&D thesis and dole out grants to researchers in t
 hat area)\, and leave with new pathways to scale your research. Open to th
 e Harvard community.\n\n \n\n11a - 12p ~ Introduction to the Programme Dir
 ector role and program focus areas for funding\n\n12p - 1p ~ lunch and min
 gle\n\n1p - 2p ~ roundtable breakouts with ARIA Program Directors\n\n \n\n
 The ARIA team will cover:\n\nHow ARIA funds speculative\, interdisciplinar
 y research (with seed funding up to £500k and program budgets up to £100
 M).\n\nCurrently open funding calls in climate\, trust infrastructure\, ro
 botics\, and AI.\n\nThe upcoming cohort of Programme Director roles\, whic
 h entrust individuals with a £50M budget to design and lead frontier R&D.
 \n\nHow US-based researchers\, startups\, and labs can successfully apply 
 and collaborate.\n\n \n\n💰 Active Funding Opportunities\n\nARIA welcome
 s applications from universities\, startups\, and individual researchers. 
 Three currently open seed with funding up to £500K per project:\n\nTrust 
 Everything\, Everywhere (Opportunity Seeds): High-potential proposals brid
 ging digital and physical trust (cryptography\, robotics\, synthetic biolo
 gy\, hardware security). Deadline: 27 July 2026\n\nFuture Proofing Our Cli
 mate and Weather (Opportunity Seeds): Early-stage research in climate adap
 tation\, resilience\, and carbon dioxide removal. Deadline: 31 July 2026\n
 \nRolling Opportunity Seeds: Projects ranging from early-stage to near-com
 mercial tech across core spaces like Mathematics for Safe AI\, Scoping Our
  Planet\, Scalable Neural Interfaces\, Smarter Robot Bodies\, and Manufact
 uring Abundance. Deadline: 31 July 2026\n\n \n\n🚀 Programme Director Ro
 les (Cohort 3)\n\nARIA is recruiting eight Programme Directors to join in 
 May 2027 (applications open August 2026). If you are a deeply technical le
 ader\, academic\, or entrepreneur with a vision to solve a monumental prob
 lem\, this role gives you the freedom and a £50 million budget to build a
 nd steer a research portfolio from scratch.\n\n \n\nARIA Leadership visiti
 ng Harvard:\n\nMuji Ahmedi\n\nMuji Ahmedi is the Product Operations Lead a
 t ARIA. Muji develops the operational mechanisms and experiences that enab
 le ARIA’s Programme Directors to pursue scientific and technological bre
 akthroughs. His work includes finding and supporting Programme Directors a
 s they develop and deliver their programmes\, and bringing together resear
 chers from different disciplines to build strong\, mission-driven communit
 ies.\n\n \n\nPranay Shah\n\nPranay Shah is the Head of Special Projects at
  ARIA. Pranay leads special projects focused on expanding ARIA’s impact 
 beyond its direct research funding. His work includes developing partnersh
 ips and initiatives that activate scientific and entrepreneurial talent\, 
 strengthen frontier R&D ecosystems\, and help translate breakthrough resea
 rch into new capabilities\, organisations\, and ventures.\n\n \n\nAlex Oba
 dia\n\nAlex Obadia is the Programme Director for Scaling Trust at ARIA. Al
 ex leads ARIA’s Scaling Trust programme\, which is developing new infras
 tructure to enable AI agents and other emerging technologies to coordinate
  securely across digital and physical environments. The programme combines
  open-source coordination tools\, fundamental research\, and an adversaria
 l arena designed to test multi-agent systems. Before joining ARIA\, Alex c
 o-founded Flashbots\, a frontier technology company focused on protecting 
 the decentralisation of the Ethereum blockchain. He is an entrepreneur and
  early-stage technology investor with a particular interest in cryptograph
 y and secure coordination systems.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nFIRST COME\, FIRST SE
 RVE\n\nSeating at all events is on a first-come\, first-served basis. RSVP
 s are encouraged so we have an accurate headcount for classroom size and c
 atering purposes.\n\n \n\nACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT\n\nThe Harvard Grid welc
 omes attendees of all abilities to our events. If you would like to reques
 t accommodations or have questions about physical access\, please contact 
 grid@harvard.edu in advance of the event.\n\n \n\nFUTURE COMMUNICATIONS\n\
 nPlease note: By registering\, you agree to receive emails about this even
 t and future communications from the Harvard Grid.\n\n \n\nWe respect your
  privacy and process personal data in accordance with the UK GDPR and the 
 Data Protection Act 2018. For more information on how we collect\, store\,
  and process your data\, please read our Privacy Policy.
GEO:42.363198;-71.127256
LOCATION:SEC 2.203
SUMMARY:ARIA Lunch and Mingle
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.seas.harvard.edu/event/aria-lunch-and-mingle-3
 13
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