{"opportunitySpacesMenu":{"title":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","subTitle":"Opportunity space","exploreText":"Explore this space","image":null,"imageMobile":null,"backLink":{"isActive":false,"text":"Back to Opportunity spaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces","title":"Back to Opportunity spaces"},"signUpLink":{"isActive":false,"text":"Sign up for updates","href":"/sign-up-for-updates-qa","title":""},"items":[{"title":"Overview","link":{"isActive":true,"text":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces","title":"Scalable Neural Interfaces"}},{"title":"Precision Neurotechnologies","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Precision Neurotechnologies","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies","title":"Precision Neurotechnologies"},"children":[{"title":"Meet the Creators","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Meet the Creators","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies/meet-the-creators","title":"Meet the Creators"}},{"title":"Funding","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Funding","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies/funding","title":"Funding"}}]},{"title":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/scalable-neural-interfaces","title":"Scalable Neural Interfaces"},"children":[]}],"activeBackgroundColor":"#ffcd9b"},"modules":[{"type":"op-header","image":{"src":"/media/bzcbltk2/manufacturingabundance_v3.png?rmode=pad&format=webp&quality=100","alt":"Manufacturingabundance V3"},"title":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","intro":"Neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders have overwhelming societal and economic impacts. We need a new suite of tools that enable us to interface, at scale, with the human brain.\n","text":"","colour1":"blue","colour2":"purple","btnColour":"blue","breadcrumb":[{"isActive":false,"text":"Home","href":"/home","title":""},{"isActive":false,"text":"Opportunity spaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces","title":""},{"isActive":true,"text":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces","title":""}],"links":{"opLink":{"isActive":true,"text":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces","title":""},"programmeLinks":[{"isActive":false,"text":"Precision Neurotechnologies","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies","title":""}],"seedLinks":[{"isActive":false,"text":"Scalable Neural Interfaces","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/scalable-neural-interfaces","title":""}]},"hideGradient":false},{"type":"standout-copy","title":"What is an opportunity space?","text":"

Opportunity spaces are areas of research that we believe are ripe for breakthroughs. They are defined by our Programme Directors, and must be highly consequential for society, under-explored relative to its potential impact, and ripe for new talent, perspectives, or resources to change what’s possible.

","link":null,"color":null,"isWhiteText":false,"fullWidth":false},{"type":"technical-areas","title":"Core beliefs","text":"The core beliefs that underpin this opportunity space: ","items":[{"label":"1.","title":"","text":"

Targeted interaction with the human brain can improve the human condition across an incredibly wide range of disease states and cognitive domains → we need to dramatically and safely increase the throughput (no. procedures per day/£) at which these technologies can be deployed to understand their full potential and deliver them at scale.

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Current paradigms for interfacing with the human brain trade off precision for invasiveness of the procedure → there’s no fundamental reason we can’t build technologies that are both highly targeted and minimally invasive.

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To fully understand and treat disorders of the brain, we’ll need neural technologies that simultaneously offer chemical, temporal, and spatial specificity → this is achievable only by connecting the frontiers of engineered hardware with the frontiers of engineered biology.

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Observations
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Some signposts as to why we see this area as important, underserved, and ripe.

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Download as a PDF here, or the accessible version here. 

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Many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders are neural circuit-level disorders, or problems with the ‘wiring’ of the brain. Current technologies lack the precision to treat this and most are highly invasive. Backed by £69m, this programme seeks to develop next-generation neurotechnologies that operate at the circuit level, across distributed brain regions and with cell type specificity.

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These technologies could yield breakthroughs in disease understanding and diagnosis, unblock bottlenecks, and move us closer to a world in which personalised brain health care is available to everyone.

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This programme is currently closed for applications. 

","backgroundColour":"purple","link":{"isActive":false,"text":"Discover more ","href":"/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies","title":"about the Precision Neurotechnologies programme"},"mediaType":"image","video":null,"image":{"src":{"mobile":"/media/l2ve3s1b/jacques-in-discovery.jpg?width=400&height=400&format=webp&v=1db4fcaf9eeda90","tablet":"/media/l2ve3s1b/jacques-in-discovery.jpg?width=440&height=550&format=webp&v=1db4fcaf9eeda90","desktop":"/media/l2ve3s1b/jacques-in-discovery.jpg?width=600&height=750&format=webp&v=1db4fcaf9eeda90"},"alt":"A photo of Jacques and another person looking at items on a table.","title":""},"secondaryImage":{"src":{"mobile":"/media/aygldo00/0d70a609-db65-4648-9efe-be8ddb056d49_3600x2401.png?width=600&height=337&format=webp&v=1db4fcb110fdfd0","tablet":"/media/aygldo00/0d70a609-db65-4648-9efe-be8ddb056d49_3600x2401.png?width=900&height=506&format=webp&v=1db4fcb110fdfd0","desktop":"/media/aygldo00/0d70a609-db65-4648-9efe-be8ddb056d49_3600x2401.png?width=1540&height=866&format=webp&v=1db4fcb110fdfd0"},"alt":"A photo of Jacques writing on a white board.","title":""},"mediaSecondMobile":false,"caption":"","fullWidth":false,"mediaVertical":false},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0},{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0},{"type":"team-cards","items":[{"image":{"src":"/media/iwgjn2ac/jacques-carolan.jpg?width=1000&height=1000&format=webp&v=1db4a567a9946f0","alt":"Jacques Carolan"},"name":"Jacques Carolan","text":"Jacques is an applied physicist and neuroscientist. Prior to joining ARIA as a founding Programme Director, he was a Discovery Fellow at UCL and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at MIT. Jacques’ work involves applying the principles of physics and engineering to create next-generation, scalable tools that aim to radically change our understanding of the brain and ultimately be used to repair it.","position":"Programme Director"},{"image":{"src":"/media/iksfio1c/tom-yates.jpg?width=1000&height=1000&format=webp&v=1db4c95891bcc20","alt":"A photo of Tom Yates smiling at the camera in front of a white wall. "},"name":"Tom Yates","text":"Tom’s background is in management consultancy and defence technology, having spent three years driving operational improvements in large companies at Newton Europe and a year deploying autonomous sentry equipment in overseas bases with Anduril Industries. Tom supports ARIA as an Operating Partner from Pace.","position":"Programme Specialist"},{"image":{"src":"/media/teqdkob5/gillian-nov24.jpg?width=1000&height=1000&format=webp&v=1db4c95307d07a0","alt":"A photo of Gillian smiling and standing in front of a white background."},"name":"Gillian Koehl","text":"Gillian, a bioengineer, is passionate about advancing health through neurotechnology. She brings expertise in neuromodulation product development and biomaterials from her time at Blackrock Neurotechnology and Imperial College London.","position":"Technical Specialist"}],"title":"Meet the programme team","text":"

Our Programme Directors are supported by a Programme Specialist (P-Spec) and Technical Specialist (T-Spec); this is the nucleus of each programme team. P-Specs co-ordinate and oversee the project management of their respective programmes, whilst T-Specs provide highly specialised and targeted technical expertise to support programmatic rigour.

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Our opportunity spaces are designed as an open invitation for researchers from across disciplines and institutions to learn with us and contribute – a variety of perspectives are just what we need to change what’s possible.

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