Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, how much of the £59 million backing the Advanced Research and Invention Agency's Safeguarded AI programme has been committed; how the programme's revised objectives are to be measured following the decision not to proceed with the planned Phase 2 call under Technical Area 3; and how the funding allocated to that call has been redeployed.

ARIA has autonomy over its funding decisions. ARIA’s Programme Directors are encouraged to monitor, course-correct, and terminate projects where redeploying funding would be most impactful.

The £59 million budget for ARIA’s Safeguarded AI programme is fully committed. Rather than launching a new Phase 2 call under Technical Area 3, ARIA redeployed funds to support project extensions for teams funded in Phase 1 who were demonstrating exceptional progress.

Following this change, ARIA refined the programme’s success measures to focus on progress towards real-world application. Emerging capabilities will be evaluated via a systematic, well-controlled benchmark suite, and their performance in demonstrations and field trials.