'Late' TA2 Phase 1 applications
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ARIA is launching a multi-phased solicitation for Technical Area 2 (TA2) to support the development of a general-purpose Safeguarded AI workflow. The programme aims to demonstrate that frontier AI techniques can be harnessed to create AI systems with verifiable safety guarantees. In TA2, we will award £18m to a non-profit entity to develop critical machine learning capabilities, requiring strong organisational governance and security standards. Phase 1, backed by £1M, will fund up to 5 teams to spend 3.5 months to develop full Phase 2 proposals. Phase 2 — which will open on 25 June 2025 —will fund a single group, for £18M, to deliver the research agenda. TA2 will explore leveraging securely-boxed AI to train autonomous control systems that can be verified against mathematical models, improving performance and robustness. The workflow will involve forking and fine-tuning mainstream pre-trained frontier AI models to create verifiably safeguarded AI solutions.
Phase 1, backed by £1M, will fund up to 5 teams to spend 3.5 months developing full Phase 2 proposals. Phase 2 — which will open on 25 June 2025 — will fund a single group, with £18M, to deliver the research agenda.
\nTA2 will explore leveraging securely-boxed AI to train autonomous control systems that can be verified against mathematical models, improving performance and robustness. The workflow will involve forking and fine-tuning mainstream pre-trained frontier AI models to create verifiably safeguarded AI solutions. Key objectives of TA2 include:
\nWorld-modelling ML (TA2(a)): Develop formal representations of human knowledge, enabling explicit reasoning and uncertainty accounting, to create auditable and predictive mathematical models.
\nCoherent reasoning ML (TA2(b)): Implement efficient reasoning methods, such as amortised inference or neural network-guided algorithms, to derive reliable conclusions from world models. Safety verification ML (TA2(c)): Create mechanisms to verify the safety of actions and plans against safety specifications, using techniques like proof certificates or probabilistic bounds.
\nPolicy training (TA2(d)): Train agent policies that balance task performance with finite-horizon safety guarantees, including backup policies for safety failure scenarios.
\nFor those applicants that do not meet the Phase 1 application deadline (30 April 2025), to make TA2 funding as accessible as possible to as many strong applicant teams, we will accept (shortened) Phase 1 proposals until 17 Aug 2025. These proposals will not be eligible for Phase 1 funding and will be reviewed against the same Phase 1 evaluation criteria. If successful, these teams will be invited to meet with the Safeguarded AI Programme team, including the Scientific Director to discuss their thinking.
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Apply until 17 August 2025:
\nTo apply, follow the same instructions as for Phase 1 (see the call for proposals), but limit the submission to 3 pages instead of 4 pages. Email clarifications@aria.org.uk to get an individual application link.
Resources
\n\nWatch the solicitation presentation
\n","mediumLayout":false,"fullWidth":false},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0},{"type":"standout-copy","title":"Answering your questions","text":"Ahead of submitting your application, we encourage you to look at our funding resources. If you have questions related to Safeguarded AI, please reach out to clarifications@aria.org.uk.
\nWe'll update this page twice a week with answers.
\nNb: clarification questions should be submitted no later than 4 days prior to the relevant deadline date. Clarification questions received after this date will not be reviewed.
","link":null,"color":"ccbbed","isWhiteText":false,"fullWidth":false},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"small","height":0},{"type":"accordion","title":"Previous funding calls in this programme","intro":"","items":[{"title":"TA1.1 Theory","text":"The first solicitation for this programme focused on TA1.1 Theory, where we sought R&D Creators – individuals and teams that ARIA will fund and support – to research and construct computationally practicable mathematical representations and formal semantics to support world-models, specifications about state-trajectories, neural systems, proofs that neural outputs validate specifications, and “version control” (incremental updates or “patches”) thereof.
","links":[{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Watch the solicitation presentation","href":"https://vimeo.com/932838403/7e7bfe96c4?","title":""},{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Read the call for proposals","href":"https://app-aria-cm-prod.azurewebsites.net/media/tfkjkjxy/aria-safeguarded-ai-ta11-theory-call-for-proposals.pdf","title":""}]},{"title":"TA3 Applications","text":"The second funding call sought potential individuals or organisations interested in using our gatekeeper AI to build safeguarded products for domain-specific applications, such as optimising energy networks, clinical trials and telecommunication networks.
\nSafeguarded AI's success will depend on showing that our gatekeeper AI actually works in a safety-critical domain. The research teams selected for TA3 will work with our other programme teams, global AI experts, academics and entrepreneurs, in setting the groundwork to deploy Safeguarded AI in one or more areas.
\nIn this first phase of TA3 funding, we intend to allocate an initial £5.4m aimed at eliciting requirements, sourcing datasets, and establishing evaluations benchmarks for relevant cyber-physical domains.
","links":[{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Watch the solicitation presentation","href":"https://vimeo.com/995044315/5221db6eaf","title":""},{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Read the call for proposals","href":"/media/o2uji1ve/aria-safeguardedai-ta3-call-for-proposal.pdf","title":""}]},{"title":"TA1.4 Sociotechnical Integration","text":"The third solicitation of this programme sought teams from the economic, social, legal and political sciences to consider the sound socio-technical integration of Safeguarded AI systems.
\nThese teams will work on problems that are plausibly critical to ensuring that the technologies developed as part of the programme will be used in the best interest of humanity at large, and that they are designed in a way that enables their governability through representative processes of collective deliberation and decision making.
","links":[{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Watch the solicitation presentation","href":"https://vimeo.com/1019469102/ae5a2269de","title":""},{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Read the call for proposals","href":"/media/bmml5lgd/davidad-ta14-programme-solicitation-call.pdf","title":""}]},{"title":"TA2 (Phase 1) Machine Learning Organisation","text":"ARIA launched a multi-phased solicitation for Technical Area 2 (TA2) to support the development of a general-purpose Safeguarded AI workflow. The programme aims to demonstrate that frontier AI techniques can be harnessed to create AI systems with verifiable safety guarantees. In TA2, we will award £18m to a non-profit entity to develop critical machine learning capabilities, requiring strong organizational governance and security standards.
\n
Phase 1, backed by £1M, will fund up to 5 teams to spend 3.5 months to develop full Phase 2 proposals. Phase 2 — which will open on 25 June 2025 —will fund a single group, for £18M, to deliver the research agenda.
TA2 will explore leveraging securely-boxed AI to train autonomous control systems that can be verified against mathematical models, improving performance and robustness. The workflow will involve forking and fine-tuning mainstream pre-trained frontier AI models to create verifiably safeguarded AI solutions.
","links":[{"target":"_blank","isActive":true,"text":"Read the call for proposals","href":"/media/sasccn40/02042025-final-ta2-phase-1-programme-solicitation-call.pdf","title":""}]}],"link":null},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0},{"type":"double-card","items":[{"title":"The Creator experience","text":"What you can expect as an ARIA R&D creator.","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Learn more ","href":"/funding-opportunities/the-creator-experience","title":"about what to expect as an ARIA Creator"},"colour":null},{"title":"Applicant guidance","text":"Discover the process of applying for ARIA funding and find key resources.","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Find out more ","href":"/funding-opportunities/applicant-guidance","title":"about the application process"},"colour":null}],"fullWidth":false},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0}],"scriptsAtTop":" \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","scriptsAtBottom":"","id":2872,"languageCode":"en","pageName":"Funding","scrollSmoothness":0.0,"gtmCode":"GTM-T8Z5F55","topNav":{"logo":{"text":"ARIA - 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