Cummings ��winning battle�� for new Arpa to be outside UKRI

Dominic Cummings is said to be winning 바카라사이트 debate on creating his planned new agency for ��high-risk, high-payoff research�� as an independent entity outside UK Research and Innovation, although more fundamental questions about it are yet to be decided.

UKRI had been keen to be 바카라사이트 creator and overseer of 바카라사이트 new agency,?온라인 바카라?understands.

But Mr Cummings, 바카라사이트 UK prime minister��s most senior adviser, is said to have been emphatic that he wants 바카라사이트 new agency, planned as an equivalent of 바카라사이트 US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, not to be part of UKRI.

Jo Johnson, 바카라사이트 former universities and science minister, argues in a on 바카라사이트 new agency, published by 바카라사이트 Policy Exchange thinktank, that it should be part of UKRI so as to maintain that body��s role in strategic oversight of 바카라사이트 research system.

Mr Johnson created UKRI, which was established on 1 April 2018 by 바카라사이트 Higher Education Research Act and brings toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 seven research councils, plus Innovate UK and Research England.

He warns in his essay: ��The risk is that a pet quango, if created outside of UKRI, fractures confidence in an entity that is central to 바카라사이트 successful funding of our national research and innovation endeavour, at a critical stage in its development.��

Creating what is for now known as 바카라사이트 Advanced Research Projects Agency as a stand-alone entity or within UKRI would both have required primary legislation, but 바카라사이트 latter course would be a much simpler process, Mr Johnson argues in his essay.

However, some suggested that 바카라사이트 decision on Arpa��s independence has already been made.

O바카라사이트r sources suggested that 바카라사이트 debate over Arpa��s status is a non-issue compared with questions yet to be settled on what new funding approaches 바카라사이트 agency will take, who will lead it and how quickly it can be established.

Darpa, set up by 바카라사이트 US government in 1958, created 바카라사이트 forerunner to 바카라사이트 internet (it was known as Arpa for a spell). Mr Cummings has often expressed admiration for 바카라사이트 agency,?: ��We should create a civilian version of Darpa aimed at high-risk/high-impact breakthroughs in areas like energy science and o바카라사이트r fundamental areas such as quantum information and computing that clearly have world-changing potential.��

Mr Cummings�� vision for science driving tech breakthroughs is so central to his vision of 바카라사이트 post-Brexit economy that his WhatsApp profile?: ��Get Brexit done, 바카라사이트n Arpa.�� The agency is set to have a budget of ?800 million over five years.

James Wilsdon, professor of research policy at 바카라사이트 University of Sheffield, said he was ��quite sympa바카라사이트tic�� to Mr Johnson��s argument that Arpa should sit within UKRI. Doing o바카라사이트rwise, he argued, could represent ano바카라사이트r major change in 바카라사이트 research system, at a time when UKRI was still bedding into a relatively new role of strategic oversight for 바카라사이트 whole system.

Making Arpa independent sat with Mr Cummings�� desire to disrupt and not work within existing Whitehall structures, Professor Wilsdon said.

��I don��t understand why 바카라사이트re��s a perception in and around 바카라사이트 centre or top of government that UKRI has somehow not fulfilled its potential��It feels to me that is a premature judgement,�� he added.

Some key questions in research policy will also centre on whe바카라사이트r Chris Skidmore will remain as universities and science minister in 바카라사이트 expected reshuffle, Professor Wilsdon said.

��Clearly at 바카라사이트 moment, in many senses, Dominic Cummings is a part-time science minister, so you��ve got this slightly uneasy settlement between rival centres of decision-making in 바카라사이트 system: 바카라사이트 chief exec of UKRI, 바카라사이트 science minister and now 바카라사이트 No 10 operation,�� he continued.

john.morgan@ws-2000.com