Established in 2024, the UK Metascience Unit is a small team of policymakers, analysts and funding delivery specialists who work across UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST). The unit is co-led by Dr Jen Gold and Dr Ben Steyn.
All our work starts from a simple idea: that the scientific method, so powerful in so many areas of life, should be systematically and routinely applied to how we practice, fund and support science itself.
We have a growing cohort of 80+ projects, totalling around £35m of investment, including:
Multi-million-pound grant schemes, contracts, and fellowship programmes to cultivate a thriving UK metascience field, generating evidence to inform a wide range of research policy topics.
In-house experiments on UKRI's funding processes.
Our focus 2026–28 is 'Science Systems in an AI Age', which includes:
Research peer review, evaluation and decision-making in an age of AI
Efficient and scalable human review to address rising application volumes (e.g. distributed peer review)
Testing feasibility and effectiveness of AI in assessment processes (e.g. grant, journal, national and sub-national portfolio evaluation)
Enhancing UKRI's internal data and analytical infrastructure to guide decision-making
Building the 'Science of AI4Science': How is AI changing science?
National AI for Research Survey
Dedicated Fellowships and Grant calls
Scientometrics: advancing the state of the art, while critically examining, quantitative measures of research quality beyond citations. E.g. indicators of novelty, impact, or rigour.
Funding Opportunities
Unfortunately, no funding opportunities are currently open, but see the links below for an idea of the sorts of schemes we typically run.
Our first major open opportunity, funding a broad range of metascience topics.
Click a project title to read the full abstract.
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Project Title
Lead
Institution
1
Liz Simmonds
University of Cambridge
2
Heather Packer
University of Southampton
3
Alexandra Pollitt
King's College London
4
Steven Wooding
University of Cambridge
5
Annette Boaz
King's College London
6
Albert Bravo-Biosca
Nesta
7
Martin Holbraad
University College London
8
Jack Blumenau
University College London
9
Alison Avenell
University of Aberdeen
10
Michael Thelwall
University of Sheffield
11
Matt Spick
University of Surrey
12
Lukas Wallrich
Birkbeck, University of London
13
Ramana Nanda
Imperial College London
14
Riccardo Crescenzi
London School of Economics and Political Science
15
Vidal Kumar
Nesta
16
Jack Stilgoe
University College London
17
Katherine Button
University of Bath
18
Andrew Stewart
University of Manchester
19
Martin Weidner
University of Oxford
20
Philip Clarke
University of Oxford
21
Nicholas DeVito
University of Oxford
22
Ohid Yaqub
University of Sussex
23
Ching Jin
University of Warwick
Our second major open opportunity, with an emphasis on understanding how AI is changing science, scientometrics, and the design of R&D institutions.
Click a project title to read the full abstract.
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Project Title
Lead
Institution
1
Richard Watermeyer
University of Bristol
2
Anouk Rigterink
Durham University
3
Denis Newman-Griffis
University of Sheffield
4
Catherine Davies
University of Leeds
5
Nophar Geifman
University of Surrey
6
Edwin Brown
University of Sheffield
7
Paul Gooding
University of Glasgow
8
Sebastian Deterding
Imperial College London
9
Rosa Filgueira
University of Edinburgh
10
Albert Bravo-Biosca
Nesta
11
Francesco Osborne
The Open University
12
Robert Evans
Cardiff University
13
Tim Evans
Imperial College London
14
Georg von Graevenitz
Queen Mary University of London
15
Nisreen Ameen
Royal Holloway University of London
16
Harvinder Virk
University of Leicester
17
Mohamad Zeina
University College London
18
James Wilsdon
University College London
Post-Doctoral Fellowships focused around how AI is changing science — accompanied by sister cohorts in the US (funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) and Canada (funded by SSHRC).
Click a project title to read the full abstract.
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Project Title
Fellow
Institution
1
Basil Mahfouz
University College London
2
Emma Gordon
University of Glasgow
3
Liangping Ding
University of Manchester
4
Justyna Bandola-Gill
University of Birmingham
5
Cen Cong
Newcastle University
6
Batool Almarzouq
University of Edinburgh
7
Youyou Wu
University College London
8
Zihao Li
University of Glasgow
9
Danny Maupin
University of Surrey
10
Megan Crawford
Edinburgh Napier University
11
Jorge Campos Gonzalez
University of Reading
12
Niall Curry
Manchester Metropolitan University
13
Chelsea Sawyer
University of Manchester
14
Aurelia Sauerbrei
University of Oxford
15
Fanqi Zeng
University of Oxford
16
Charlotte Collins
University of Cambridge
17
Joseph Shingleton
University of Glasgow
18
SJ Bennett
Durham University
Projects focussed on generating policy-relevant insights using UKRI's internal grant data, accessed within a purpose-built trusted research environment.
Click a project title to read the full abstract.
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Project Title
Lead
Project Team
1
Christopher Daley
Rosa Filgueira, University of Edinburgh [Project co-lead (UK)]; Christopher Daley, London School of Economics and Political Science [Project lead]
2
Michael Thelwall
Gloria Iyawa, University of Salford [Project co-lead (UK)]; Michael Thelwall, University of Sheffield [Project lead]; Petr Knoth, The Open University [Project co-lead (UK)]; Francesco Osborne, The Open University [Project co-lead (UK)]
3
Robert de Vries
Margherita Negri, University of St Andrews [Project co-lead (UK)]; Robert de Vries, University of Kent [Project lead]; Gary Chapman, University of Nottingham [Project co-lead (UK)]; Jackie Thompson, University of Oxford [Project co-lead (UK)]; Aderinkola Alabi, Anglia Ruskin University [Project co-lead (UK)]
4
Rhodri Leng
Rhodri Leng, University of Edinburgh [Project lead]; George Richardson, Nesta [Project co-lead (UK)]; Christopher Edgar, Nesta [Specialist]
5
Rosa Filgueira
Gemma Derrick, University of Bristol [Project co-lead (UK)]; Alexandru Marcoci, University of Cambridge [Project co-lead (UK)]; Rosa Filgueira, University of Edinburgh [Project lead]; Angelo Salatino, The Open University [Project co-lead (UK)]; ZHOU Zhou, University of Cambridge [Research and innovation associate]; Sarah Callaghan, University of Oxford [Project co-lead (UK)]
Projects focussed on the production and critique of scientometric indicators.
Click a project title to read the full abstract.
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Project Title
Lead
Institution
1
Chenghua Lin
University of Manchester
2
Michael Foster
University of Sheffield
3
Angelo Salatino
The Open University
4
Katherine Button
University of Bath
5
Alma Rahat
Loughborough University
6
Anil Fernando
University of Strathclyde
7
Enrico Vanino
University of Sheffield
Click a project title to read more.
We have been conducting in-house experiments on UKRI's funding policies, for instance:
Project
Click a project title to read more.
The Unit has forged a long-term partnership with a consortium of researchers led by RAND Europe, the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, and the Policy Institute at King's College London, under the leadership of RAND's Dr Susan Guthrie.
Through the consortium, we have a number of projects, including:
Project
Meet the Team
Unit Leadership
Dr Jen Gold
Co-Lead, UK Metascience Unit
Director of Research, ESRC / UKRI
Dr Ben Steyn
Co-Lead, UK Metascience Unit
Head of Metascience, BIST
Unit Members
Jack Leahy
BIST
Layla Adams
ESRC / UKRI
Lauren Curtis
ESRC / UKRI
Dr Lucy Gresley
ESRC / UKRI
Dr Cillian Brophy
ESRC / UKRI
Chiaki Beis
ESRC / UKRI
Louise Thomas
ESRC / UKRI
Programme Board
Since Jan 2024, the Metascience programme has been governed by a joint BIST/UKRI Board, co-chaired by ESRC Executive Chair Stian Westlake and BIST Dir. Science, Research and Innovation, Holly Yates.
Technical Support Consortium
The Unit has forged a long-term partnership with a consortium of researchers led by RAND Europe, the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, and the Policy Institute at King's College London, under the leadership of Dr Susan Guthrie. They support the design, delivery, and quality assurance of many of the Unit's studies.
Get in Touch
If you are a policymaker, funder, researcher or industry actor interested in collaborating with us, or being connected to any of our partners and grant awardees, please get in touch.
