The creation of UKRI has established a more coherent framework for the organisation of Government funding for research and innovation. There are reasons to think that UKRI, following its initial period of being established, could benefit from refreshing its processes and ways of working, specifically to reduce bureaucracy, increase agility and make it easier for external organisations to engage with it in research involving translation and commercialisation of discoveries. The question is whether such changes would make redundant the role of an ARPA-like agency. We consider on balance that even in a better functioning system, there can be a role for a body that sits outside and operates in a different way to the established mechanisms, with a different culture and which is able to operate free of some of the structures that are necessary for the dominant research funding institution.