James Wilsdon
@jameswilsdon.bsky.social
undisciplined metascientist | executive director, Research on Research Institute @RoRInstitute.bsky.social | professor of research policy, UCL
Churn, not crisis, for UK science @profgeraintrees.bsky.social & I have written the editorial in this week’s @science.org, reflecting on early moves by the Burnham government + scope for US-UK cooperation on scale-up finance & AI for science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @rorinstitute.bsky.social
DSIT is dead, but UK science will be fine - writing in @theconversation.com, RoRI’s @jameswilsdon.bsky.social breaks down the UK government's latest Whitehall reorganisation and why the research community shouldn't be alarmed by closer proximity to business: theconversation.com/what-the-sud...
What the sudden demise of the UK’s department of science means for the future of research
If we want to be reminded what real damage to a science system looks like, we only need to glance across the Atlantic.
theconversation.com
DSIT is dead, but UK science will be fine. Keep your eyes on the AI prize. A few thoughts by me @theconversation.com on the reorganisation of Whitehall science theconversation.com/what-the-sud... @ersatzben.com @hetanshah.bsky.social @rorinstitute.bsky.social @profgeraintrees.bsky.social
What the sudden demise of the UK’s department of science means for the future of research
If we want to be reminded what real damage to a science system looks like, we only need to glance across the Atlantic.
theconversation.com
So it's official, DSIT is no more Jonny Reynolds is secretary of state for...DBIST? BIST? The officials will have to be called BISTOs... x.com/i/status/207...
UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) on X
Jonathan Reynolds has been appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.
x.com
Outstanding and important *NEW* post on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social Substack from Andy Stirling on the democratic challenges for metascience and its role in informing science policy. open.substack.com/pub/research...
Illuminating neglected uncertainties
How metascience can help rather than hinder democracy
open.substack.com
‘…political appointees patrolling the borders of knowledge.’ @anjahuja.bsky.social on the US OMB’s attempt to rewrite the rules of federal grantmaking giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... t
Trump is driving another nail into the coffin of US science
Under proposed reforms, political appointees will review grants to ensure they “advance the President’s priorities”
giftarticle.ft.com
A great start yesterday to RoRI’s 3-day summit on ‘augmented assessment’ in Cambridge, where we’ve been joined by the architects of research assessment systems from 11 countries, and a fantastic team of metascience experts & facilitators.
RoRI’s @jameswilsdon.bsky.social and @profgeraintrees.bsky.social warn that autonomous AI agents pose an existential threat to research funding by driving grant application costs to zero. They argue assessment must urgently shift away from AI-optimized text to what technology cannot simulate.
LERU Talks - AI and research grants: is the system doomed to collapse?
YouTube video by The League of European Research Universities (LERU)
youtube.com
🌍 RoRI has launched META-MOMENT, the largest comparative study mapping metascience across 21 countries, at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council in Bangkok, where RoRI’s @jameswilsdon.bsky.social joined a panel of international funding leaders: researchonresearch.org/rori-launche...
‘AI-assisted grants: prioritize fairness with excellence.’ Thoughtful editorial in @nature.com sparked by the article @profgeraintrees.bsky.social & I wrote last week, plus ongoing debates at ERC about how to cope with volume/demand spikes www.nature.com/articles/d41... @rorinstitute.bsky.social
To deal with AI effects on grant fining “funding bodies should consider shifting the emphasis of evaluation away from written proposals & towards the principal investigator, their research team & their previous and ongoing research programmes”🧪 An interesting proposal that might create new problems?
James Wilsdon@jameswilsdon.bsky.social · 3mo agoCould agentic AI topple grant-funding systems? New article in @nature.com by @profgeraintrees.bsky.social & me, with data from 12 funders showing a 57% increase in grant applications since 2022 (& the launch of LLMs) rdcu.be/ffApn @rorinstitute.bsky.social @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social
Have grants become more competitive lately? 🧪 At least some of the uptick in submissions (that we've reported on @nature.com) seems driven by AI-assisted proposal writing -- funders, like journals, are flooded Great comment piece by @jameswilsdon.bsky.social & co: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Could agentic AI topple grant-funding systems?
Funders must take action before an increase in submission of high-quality proposals written using AI models makes it impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff.
nature.com
Could agentic AI topple grant-funding systems? New article in @nature.com by @profgeraintrees.bsky.social & me, with data from 12 funders showing a 57% increase in grant applications since 2022 (& the launch of LLMs) rdcu.be/ffApn @rorinstitute.bsky.social @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social
Great to be in sunny Leusden, NL at the International School for Philosophy (ISVW) for the 2026 RoRI Research Retreat. And here’s (most of!) RoRI’s research and operational team — huge thanks to them all for everything they’ve contributed over the past year. @rorinstitute.bsky.social @cwts.nl
This proposes a way of using AI agents to produce research. Ok. But this bit is a pipe dream: "And human scientists should retain authority over — and responsibility for — framing the question, validating the path and signing off on conclusions." Here's why... /1
Stephen Curry@scurry.bsky.social · 5mo agoConsidered and thought-provoking commentary on the use of AI agents in research by Dashun Wang. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Delighted to welcome to @rorinstitute.bsky.social —> ZonMw, the NL funder of innovation in health & well-being; —> The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social, the UK national academy for humanities & social sciences Now 21 core partners in 13 countries researchonresearch.org/rori-welcome...
RoRI welcomes ZonMw and the British Academy as Core Partners - Research on Research
We are pleased to announce two new Core Partners: ZonMw, the Dutch Organisation for knowledge and innovation in health, healthcare […]
researchonresearch.org
🇬🇧 Our latest paper "uses broad bibliometrics to compare the STEM and SHAPE sectors over time in the UK, with comparisons to other countries" Reviewers find it timely & useful, yet suggest a different analytical approach as well as a tighter definition of SHAPE 👇 Find the full evaluation on MetaROR
Understanding the importance of SHAPE to the UK research ecosystem - MetaROR
metaror.org
Looking forward to lots of lively metascience discussion on the new @rorinstitute.bsky.social substack. Read my inaugural post to find out what we’re up to.
Research on Research Institute (RoRI)@rorinstitute.bsky.social · 5mo agoRoRI is now on Substack! With Go Meta!, we’re joining the growing metascience conversation with essays, reflections & provocations on how research is funded and evaluated. Our first post, by @scurry.bsky.social, reflects on his journey into metascience: open.substack.com/pub/research...
📢 New RoRI Working Paper: Does targeted research funding reshape research landscapes? New RoRI evidence from Norway and Switzerland suggests shifts in research topics are gradual - and similar under both targeted and non-targeted funding: researchonresearch.org/does-targete...
RoRI’s Seunghyun Lee and @jameswilsdon.bsky.social joined discussions at the OECD Global Science Forum in Paris on rethinking research assessment & incentives. Assessment reform is moving to the centre of research policy debates; read the full write-up here: researchonresearch.org/rethinking-r...
“We’re not ditching culture”, says Helen Cross. “But we want to reset the conversation and the words got in the way.” #REF2029
Now Lord Vallance is back on his ‘three buckets’ theory of R&D funding Here’s @ersatzben.com on the ‘3-bucket problem’ www.ersatzben.com/p/the-three-... Bucketism now the frontier of R&I policy. “We must defend the first bucket” says the Minister. A rallying cry to echo down the ages #REF2029
“We’re out of the pause. It’s back to business as usual. We’re moving forward with #REF2029” concludes Jessica Corner. And indeed, it’s a classic REF compromise!
So farewell ‘People, Culture & Environment’… And hello ‘Strategy, People & Research Environment’, or SPRE to her friends. 25% more words; 5% less weight… #REF2029
At @universities-uk.bsky.social where Dame Jessica Corner is gearing up for the big REF reveal! #REF2029
🇬🇧 Big news for UK metascience: the government is trebling the UK Metascience Unit’s budget to £49m. "This represents a resounding vote of confidence in the value and opportunities of metascience to improve the way the UK funds, manages and evaluates research", says RoRI's @jameswilsdon.bsky.social
UCL’s @geoffmulgan.bsky.social kicks off tonight’s seminar on ‘Science in a populist age’ at @wellcometrust.bsky.social, with a stellar line-up inc @helenpearson.bsky.social @senseaboutsci.bsky.social @alokjha.bsky.social. We’ll post the video online soon. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/science-ad...
👀Interesting to see the budget earlier this week confirming funding for @ukri.org trial of #DistributedPeerReview, we featured a post from @rorinstitute.bsky.social discussing their recent work on the subject back in September 👇
Distributed Peer Review – How the wisdom of the crowd can allocate grant funding - Impact of Social Sciences
New research shows engaging the applicants in funding review processes can resolve and reframe many issues facing peer review.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
