It is clear that the new funding agency should embrace risk—and be prepared for some of its projects to fail. Further, this should be combined with a long-term outlook, with research programmes spanning 10–15 years. Currently, it appears that funding is only guaranteed for the agency’s first five years, which could limit its scope for making truly transformational breakthroughs. If the Government wants UK ARPA 46 A new UK research funding agency to pursue research programmes with the potential to have transformational effects on society—and its proposals suggest that it does—UK ARPA must, firstly, fund research that would be considered too risky by the existing research and innovation system and be prepared for some programmes to fail. Secondly, the Government must accept that these projects will take a long time, potentially 10–15 years, to ‘bear fruit’. The Government must meet this ambition with long-term funding for the agency and the programmes it will fund.