Programmable Plants
Opportunity seeds support ambitious research aligned to our opportunity spaces. We’re looking to challenge assumptions, open up new research paths, and provide steps towards new capabilities.
Can we programme plants to remove more CO2, improve food security, and deliver medicines to those in need?
We're looking to fund bold ideas within the Programmable Plants opportunity space with up to £500k each.
You can find the scope below and our evaluation criteria in our call for proposals.
What's in scope?
+ Ideas that sit within the Programmable Plants opportunity space. By this, we mean your proposal should show how your idea either aligns with or challenges the assumptions of the Summary, Beliefs, or Observations in the opportunity space;
+ Both land plants and aquatic plants (incl. green algae);
+ Microorganisms influencing plants, provided that they're being used to alter an aspect of a plant’s form or function;
+ Ideas that could change the conversation about what's possible or valuable;
+ Ideas that range from early-stage, curiosity-driven research through to pre-commercial science and technology.
What's out of scope?
+ Ideas that are within scope of the Synthetic Plants programme (applications for this have now closed);
+ Cyanobacteria;
+ Ideas that are undifferentiated or are likely to happen without ARIA’s support;
+ Commercial or close-to-commercial stage products.
Who are we looking to fund?
We welcome applications from the entire R&D ecosystem. We’re keen to hear from early career entrepreneurs and researchers, and those from a broad range of sectors and backgrounds, including public sector research organisations and charities. We care more about your idea and intrinsic motivations than we do about your CV.
What budget and timeline can you propose?
We provide funding from £10k up to £500k per project, inclusive of VAT (where applicable) and all associated costs (both direct and indirect).
There is no minimum length for a proposed project but the maximum length is three years.
Apply for funding
Deadline: 9 April 2025 [13:00 GMT]
Please read the call for proposals before submitting an application.
We’ve designed a short and straightforward application. We hope you can spend no more than two to three hours writing it, though we'd recommend spending some time thinking through your idea before applying.
If you have any further questions relating to the opportunity seed call, please email clarifications@aria.org.uk.
Essential resources for this call
Meet the team
Angie Burnett is a plant biologist and has spent the last decade focusing on understanding the power of plants to solve some of our most pressing challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation. Previously, Angie was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
"Plants provide us with a wealth of natural resources, and the future possibilities are endless. This opportunity space will uncover new ways to interact with plants, helping plants to help people better."
Meet the team
As a plant scientist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Fabrizio has dedicated the last ten years to furthering our understanding of plant biology and seeing it translated to impactful products. Prior to joining ARIA, Fabrizio spent 5 years working in early stage technology startups, first at Synthace, where he was consulting Pharma and Crop Protection companies on lab automation and design of experiments, and more recently in the leadership team at Gardin, where he led the plant science team and headed delivery of the company R&D product offering.
Meet the team
Nivashinee has more than five years’ experience in programme management and project delivery. She led high profile projects at a leading global technology consultancy and has worked within delivery management in a variety of industries, ranging from edtech and life sciences to the aviation aftermarket. Nivashinee supports ARIA as an Operating Partner from Pace.
