AFIRE

Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Professor, University of Sheffield

Tom Stafford is Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sheffield’s School of Psychology, where his work applies insights from neuroscience, experimental design, and data science to the study of learning, decision-making, and bias.

Until August 2026, he is on secondment at RoRI, and from 2026 to 2028, he will hold a Visiting Professorship in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.

As a Senior Fellow at RoRI, Tom leads AFIRE (Accelerator For Innovation & Research Funding Experimentation), a programme dedicated to catalysing high-quality evidence on research processes.

His expertise in metaresearch is further reflected in his role on the PsyArXiv Scientific Advisory Board, where he chairs the Public Engagement Subcommittee.

Previously, Tom served as the University Research Practice Lead for the University of Sheffield (2020–2025), where he represented the institution in the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and chaired the national UKRN Institutional Leads group. An experienced educator, he also designed and led Sheffield’s MSc in Psychological Research Methods with Data Science.

He shares regular updates on his work and writing projects via his Substack, tomstafford.substack.com.

Head of Programmes, RoRI 

Pete is part of the core leadership team at RoRI. Current roles include leading the oversight of RoRI’s project portfolio and supporting leadership of the AFIRE and AGORRA projects. Pete is also involved in scoping and designing RoRi’s future portfolio of projects and programmes. 

Formerly a principal consultant at Technopolis, Pete has 12 years’ experience in the field of science and research policy, having managed or directed over 30 projects and worked as a researcher on many more. Highlights from this body of work include a major study on 38 modifications to peer review for grant funding, evaluating UKRI’s research funding response to Covid-19 (process and impact), a peer-learning initiative on partnered research programmes for the GRC, and two major impact assessments for the European Social Survey (ESS). Beyond the above, Pete has worked for clients including the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, Wellcome, the Academy of Finland, the Royal Society, the Human Frontier Science Program, and the Austrian Science Fund. 

Pete is a researcher, project manager, communicator and coach, with ample experience of sharing their expertise at several academic and professional conferences and at organisations including the OECD, the GRC, the German Data Forum (RatSWD) and the UK’s House of Lords. They hold a PhD in sociology from the University of Sussex and subsequently published a book on new directions for centre-left politics in the age of globalisation. Pete is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy/ Advance HE and a fluent speaker of English and German. 

Research Fellow, RoRI

Josie Coburn is a Research Fellow in Metascience at RoRI at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London (UCL). She is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a portfolio of interests including:

• Metascience (research on research / science of science), including how research is funded, organised, practiced and evaluated, and research and innovation funding experimentation;
• The desirability and feasibility of targeting research to address societal needs, how and why research directions evolve over time (e.g. serendipity, failure, and other aspects of research processes and research environments);
• Opening up decision-making in science, technology and innovation, and the appraisal and evaluation of research and innovation policies and strategies.

Josie works in a range of fields including health and biomedicine, energy and sustainability, and AI and ICTs. She uses a variety of methods including qualitative, scientometric, and hybrid methods. For example, Josie is skilled in Multicriteria Mapping (MCM), a hybrid quantitative-qualitative method for opening up complex decision making by mapping different perspectives on a range of options and taking into account uncertainty.

Before joining RoRI, Josie worked at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex as a Research Fellow. She has a PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies funded by the ERC; MSc’s in Public Policies for Science, Technology and Innovation funded by the ESRC, and in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems funded by the EPSRC; and a BA in Artificial Intelligence. She also has 4 years’ experience as an Analyst Programmer and Systems Analyst in large and small ICT firms.

Research Fellow, RoRI and Research Associate, University of Sheffield 

Anna is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield. She joined RoRI in 2024 to work with Tom Stafford and Stephen Pinfield on the Distributed Peer Review project.

Her research interests include research improvement, data communication, researcher wellbeing and research evaluation. With a background in psychology, she is interested in applying psychological theory and approaches to understand and improve research practices and systems. 

Anna completed her PhD in Psychology (2025), having previously completed an MA in Social Research (2021) and BSc in Psychology with Foundation Year (2020).

Research Fellow, RoRI and Research Associate, University of Sheffield

Melanie is a Research Associate in the School of Information, Journalism, and Communication at the University of Sheffield. Her PhD research focused on migration and information behaviour. Her research interests include open science and research cultures, library and information science, and the use of visual and creative methods. She previously worked for a major academic publisher in acquisitions and project management, specialising in engineering and computer science. 

She joined RoRI in 2024 to support our work on Distributed Peer Review with Stephen Pinfield, Tom Stafford, and Anna Butters.

Executive Director, RoRI and Professor of Research Policy at University College London (UCL)

James is one of the founders of RoRI and has been its director since 2019. He is also Professor of Research Policy at University College London (UCL), based in its Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP). Since the late-1990s, as a researcher, writer, adviser and campaigner, James has worked at the heart of science and research policy in the UK and internationally. In addition to academic posts at the universities of Sheffield, Sussex and Lancaster, he has worked in think tanks, NGOs and as director of science policy for the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. 

In his work, James has advanced concepts such as upstream public engagement, science diplomacy, responsible metrics and responsible research assessment; and he has co-founded or chaired initiatives such as People & Planet; the Campaign for Social Science; International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA); UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics; and the Research on Research Institute (RoRI).

In 2014, James was asked to chair an independent UK government review of research metrics, published as The Metric Tide. He subsequently chaired a European Commission expert group on Next Generation Metrics, and in 2022, revisited these debates with colleagues in Harnessing the Metric Tide.

In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2022, of the International Science Council.

Senior Strategic Advisor, RoRI

Stephen has long-standing interests in many different aspects of research, including funding, assessment, equity, culture and publication. He has written extensively on these issues in academic papers and book chapters, in the Guardian, and on his Reciprocal Space blog. Stephen was a founder member of the campaign group Science is Vital in 2010 and served on the board of the Campaign for Science and Engineering from 2012-18. In Autumn 2023 he reached the end of his six-year term as chair of the steering group of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), an organization he has helped to position as a singularly influential force for the promotion of research assessment reform worldwide. 

Stephen was a member of the UK government-convened group which in 2015 produced The Metric Tide report on the use of metrics in research assessment and, most recently, was a co-author of the 2022 Harnessing the Metric Tide report, which looked at options for implementing responsible assessment practices within REF 2028. He has served in an advisory or review panel capacity for a range of UK and international organisations including LERU, ERC, JISC,UKRN, SNSF and FWF.

Alongside these interests, Stephen has been an academic at Imperial College since 1995, forging a research career as a structural biologist investigating molecular aspects of protein-drug interactions and on the replication of RNA viruses. Latterly, he has served as Imperial’s first Associate Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (2017-23) and is now a College Consul, in which capacity he remains closely involved in the research and educational mission of the university.