A flagship British research agency, set up to “restore Britain’s place as a scientific superpower”, has given more than £50 million from British taxpayers to US technology companies and venture capital projects. The brainchild of Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) was designed as a British version of the long-standing US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which develops cutting-edge technologies for the US state.