Inside our new seed call for Scalable Neural Interfaces

Jacques Carolan, Programme Director

When I arrived at ARIA at the end of last year, I knew straight away that I wanted to run a programme in the neurotechnology space. The impact of brain disorders is simply enormous, both socially (we all know someone who has been affected by a neurological or neuropsychiatric disorder) and economically (the direct costs of brain disorders are estimated to be over $1T globally). In the modern age, where we can engineer biology with single gene precision and fabricate CMOS circuitry in 2nm nodes, I found it unfathomable that we couldn't make progress in treating the most significant contributor to the global disease burden.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve made incredible first steps. We’ve seen pioneering work funded by DARPA in the early 2000s and even the first companies developing brain-computer interfaces that people can use in their own homes. But these technologies are nowhere near being deployed at scale. So in building my scope of work at ARIA, the question I kept coming back to was: where are the major leverage points where ARIA can be truly catalytic and deliver the most effective therapies to the largest number of people?

This was the genesis of my opportunity space, Scalable Neural Interfaces. At ARIA, an ‘opportunity space’ is a broad area that we believe would be transformative if true and is underexplored relative to its potential impact. The way I think about it is that it’s bigger than a single programme and smaller than an entire field – let’s say, you could fit half a dozen programmes in it.

For my opportunity space, the critical word is scale, which has two meanings. The first is in the manufacturing sense: how do we deliver cutting edge technologies at scale to broad patient populations? The second is in the metrological sense: how do we interface with the human brain at the correct scale? My conjecture here is that by interfacing at the same scale as some of the most common and complex neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders – at the circuit-level – we can develop much more effective therapies that account for disease heterogeneity.

Now that you have the context, I’m super excited to announce that we’ve just launched our first opportunity seed call within Scalable Neural Interfaces. Seeds are designed to support high-variance ideas, with smaller budgets (£10k–£500k), less structure, and shorter timeframes than full programmes. Seeds may inspire future programmes or evolve into standalone projects worthy of additional investment.

With this funding call having just opened, I wanted to share some thoughts about the types of things that will get us excited and the types of things that won't.

Things that will get us excited:

• Bold ambition: we love projects that are highly speculative but make a compelling case for transformative impact;

• Novel perspectives: we're keen to see approaches not traditionally associated with neurotechnology;

• Early career individuals + field pivots: we value your ideas, not your seniority, whether you're just starting in neurotechnology or bringing expertise from another field;

• Diverse backgrounds: we want perspectives from people who've been underrepresented in neurotechnology – your unique viewpoint matters;

• Action-oriented projects: we want to see rapid progress.

Things that won’t get us excited:

• Well-trodden paths: linear extensions of work you’ve already done or projects likely to happen without us;

• Projects without a well-considered plan: proposing a large budget without clear explanation or justification.

What might this look like in practice?

Perhaps an undergraduate wants to prototype a new non-invasive neural stimulator and requires funding for a simulation software licence. Or maybe a postdoc has spent their career working in AMO physics and has an idea about how they could use these same technologies for high-precision brain mapping. Or maybe a startup working on the gut microbiome has uncovered a new mechanism to modulate the brain via the gut-brain axis and they want to collaborate with a neuroscientist to test this out. These are just ideas that the team and I have dreamed up at ARIA HQ; there are many other examples and scenarios that we’d love to hear about.

How can you apply?

The application process is intentionally short and straightforward, with decisions made within a matter of weeks after the call closes. Ready to start? Head to our application page here and apply by 13 February 2025. We can't wait to see your ideas!