Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s £800 million budget will be allocated to research into (a) antimicrobial resistance as a whole, (b) rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance, and (c) vaccine technologies to mitigate antimicrobial resistance.

As set out in ARIA’s Framework Agreement, ARIA will have maximum autonomy over its research and project choice; its procedures; and its institutional culture. Decisions on the programme portfolio will be set by ARIA, not ministers, and allocation of funding to research projects will be decided by those with relevant technical expertise.

Over the coming months, ARIA is recruiting its first cohort of Programme Directors, who will help to shape and inform the Agency’s first set of research programmes.