AFIRE Experimental Funders Group meetings (2026)
The AFIRE Experimental Funders Group meetings are an opportunity for research funders to discuss current issues in research funding and experimental approaches. You can see some details of previous events here: AFIRE Funders’ Forum Event series (2024-2025).
Future workshop dates and topics:
17 June 16:00 CEST – Distributed Peer Review
For this session, we’re pleased to welcome speakers from across the funder community to discuss their experiences of Distributed Peer Review (DPR). Jessica Biddinger (American Heart Foundation), Svenja Vandertol (NWO), Tom Stafford/Stephen Pinfield (VWS) and Sampsa Kaataja (NordForsk) will join us to share insights from DPR use at their organisations.
We’ll then open up the discussion, drawing on the different experiences in the (virtual) room and our shared knowledge to consider some of the key questions about DPR. What type of funding call is DPR good for? How should we communicate about DPR with applicants? When should (and when shouldn’t) it be used?
14 October 16:00 CEST – Desk Rejection
16 December 09:00 CEST – ‘Lottery First’ methods
RoRI’s AFIRE project exists to produce more and better funder experiments, and to encourage funders’ knowledge about experiments, enthusiasm for experiments, and use of experiments as evidence. The aim of the Experimental Funders Group is to provide funders with a venue for engagement, learning and identifying opportunities for experiments.
All events are online and take place under the Chatham House rule. The meetings will provide an informal, high-trust environment in which the pros, cons and uncertainties of more experimental approaches to research and innovation (R&I) funding can be shared and discussed among peers in the R&I funding community.
If you have any questions and/or if you would like to contribute on a particular topic please get in touch with Josie Coburn (josie.coburn@ucl.ac.uk) or Tom Stafford (t.stafford@researchonresearch.org).
If you would like to attend, please register here: https://forms.gle/TV9DdsAHHP5aUDHN7.
Past workshops
AI in funding
13 May 2026
- Andrés F. Rodríguez, Impact and Learning Manager at Stanford Impact Labs (SIL), an impact-oriented research funder, spoke on “The role of evaluations on responsible AI use for research grant-making”
- Ben Steyn, Head of Metascience at DSIT and co-head of the DSIT/UKRI Metascience Unit spoke about a portfolio of UKRI projects to test the feasibility and effectiveness of AI desk rejection, AI as a reviewer, and AI as a meta-reviewer, as well as wider thinking and consideration of how AI is shaping the applications (number and content) and could be integrated into UKRI processes
