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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake.bsky.social

Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council. Metascience, evidence, data infrastructures, economic growth.

124 Posts2312 Follower226 Folgt
Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social · 4mo ago

My first post university job in 2004 on the BOE grad scheme paid £24,500. Full time minimum wage was (at 35 hours at a week) £8,190. BOE grad scheme today pays £33,525. Minimum wage at 35 hours a week: £23,132. A real terms collapse and a real terms surge.

Stian Westlake@stianwestlake.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A question I am interested in: 1. in what ways has the existence of programmes like Teach First generated a cadre of able innovators and leaders in the education sector (casual empiricism suggests it has!) 2. what if anything can the UK health sector learn from this?

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Innovate UK head foresees ‘golden era’ for research commercialisation Interviewed by RPN, Tom Adeyoola confident research base can generate “companies of the future” as funder revamps model www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Innovate UK head foresees ‘golden era’ for research commercialisation - Research Professional News

Tom Adeyoola confident research base can generate “companies of the future”, as funder revamps model

researchprofessionalnews.com

Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Every couple of months or so, someone puts out a piece of bad social science meant to undermine the case for more housing. For Roosevelt Institute, I wrote a blog post responding to the two most recent specimens. rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/there-i...

There Is No Housing Affordability Without Building More Housing

If we make it easier to build dense housing in cities, then the resulting supply boost will ease the cost burden on renters and put homeownership within closer reach for millions of households.

rooseveltinstitute.org

Conrad Hackett@conradhackett.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Fascinating paper! Scholars who are secular are more likely to believe in secularization & find evidence of it in their research. The opposite pattern is true for scholars who are religious. This is worth your time to read in full: sociologicalscience.com/download/vol...

Few terms have the ability to fire up conversations among sociologists of religion like secularization. Despite the amount of research produced on the topic of religious change, no consensus has been reached on the trajectory of religion facing modernity. In this study, we test whether the secularization controversy stems not only from disagreements over empirical evidence on religious decline but also from different religious and secular beliefs of researchers involved in the debate. We find that religiosity has a significant negative impact on both believing in the validity of the secularization thesis and finding evidence for it in published work. This effect size is non-trivial: researchers with the highest level of religiosity are 24.0 percentage points less likely to believe in secularization and 19.2 percentage points less likely to find evidence of secularization in their published work than their secular colleagues. This result cannot be explained by differences in methods used (whether qualitative, quantitative, or non-empirical), study impact, or by differences in the religious traditions or geographical areas under study. Importantly, we cannot determine who is responsible for the bias, whether religious scholars, secular scholars, or both. Nor can we assess to what extent this bias is explicit, intentional, and how much of it is implicit and unwanted. The precise mechanisms through which such biases emerge remain unclear as well. Is it the case that researchers make certain methodological choices to come up with a desired study outcome that is consistent with prior beliefs and orientations? Or is it the case that results that align with authors’ ideological views are evaluated less critically than results disregarding their own personal beliefs? In our view, there is likely a confirmation bias at work: people tend to seek, favor, recall, and value evidence confirming their pre-existing beliefs while ignoring or downgrading disconfirming evidence
Valeria Rainero@valeriarainero.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My first paper is out in #SociologicalScience! With Jörg Stolz and Ruud Luijkx, we found robust evidence of ideological #bias in #secularization research: researchers' own religiosity is correlated with their probability of finding evidence of religious decline in their publications. Read more: 👇

Stian Westlake@stianwestlake.bsky.social · 6mo ago

There’s been some concern and speculation in recent days about the future of curiosity-driven and applied research in the UK. This letter from UKRI CEO Ian Chapman provides some helpful context on what’s really going on. I hope you find it useful. www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

ukri.org

Stian Westlake@stianwestlake.bsky.social · 7mo ago

New Metascience funding opportunity! We're holding an interactive "sandpit" to develop research projects that develop, validate, and critique novel scientometric indicators for research assessment and future metascience research. £3m funding available. Apply here: www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

Metascience sandpit: scientometrics for research assessment

Apply to attend a four-day interactive sandpit to co-develop research projects that develop, validate, and critique novel scientometric indicators for use in research assessment and in future metascie...

ukri.org

Stian Westlake@stianwestlake.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Excited to launch ESRC's major investment in METIUS, led by @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social, with a host of global partners. METIUS will harness AI to provide timely, reliable evidence synthesis on major societal challenges to policymakers across the globe. www.ukri.org/news/ai-inve...

AI investment to transform global policy with scientific evidence

An £11.5 million AI-driven evidence synthesis project will turbocharge policymakers’ ability to quickly understand scientific evidence on important issues.

ukri.org

UK Research and Innovation@ukri.org · 11mo ago

Announcing Generation New Era: the first UK-wide birth cohort study in 25 years. It will study 30,000 children born in 2026 across the four nations of the UK. Watch out for upcoming opportunities for researchers and other stakeholders to engage with the study team via @clscohorts.bsky.social

UKRI announces first UK-wide birth cohort study in 25 years

A ground-breaking UK-wide scientific study will help improve the lives of future generations by studying 30,000 children born in 2026.

ukri.org

Stian Westlake@stianwestlake.bsky.social · last yr.

Open Philanthropy have been a terrific partner in the work of the UK Metascience Unit. Two things I’d mention in particular: (a) the very high quality of the metascience work OP do on their own account (eg Matt Clancy’s thoughtful articles)…

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · last yr.

Meanwhile, Open Philanthropy www.openphilanthropy.org, founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and with a history of supporting effective altruism, is a co-funder of the UKRI metascience programme www.ukri.org/opportunity/...