3: France's Station F and the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency

This episode is a conversation recorded live in Tokyo with two of the world's most vibrant innovation driving organizations: France's Station F and UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).Station F is the world's largest accelerator program, supporting over 1,000 companies per year. Its striking physical facility is a converted railway freight station. It comprises over 34,000 square meters of innovation space, making it the physically largest innovation facility in Europe. Since its opening in 2017, Station F has set the standard for what a national innovation hub should be, and it has inspired many heads of state to consider building similar facilities. In the interview, we hear from Station F's International Partnerships Lead, Joanna Gruau. ARIA stands for the Advanced Research and Invention Agency. It is the UK's so-called "moonshot agency". ARIA is actively deploying roughly 2 billion British pounds to advanced frame-breaking, over the horizon, innovation across 14 "opportunity areas". Its goal is to make all of our lives better, while strengthening the UK economy. ARIA is one of the most daring and exciting national innovation efforts anywhere in the world. Representing ARIA is Muji Ahmedi, who leads ARIA's Product Operations.