RoRI welcomes ZonMw and the British Academy as Core Partners

We are pleased to announce two new Core Partners: ZonMw, the Dutch Organisation for knowledge and innovation in health, healthcare and well-being; and The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. 

This brings the tally of RoRI’s Core Partners to 21 organisations across 13 countries. RoRI’s work programme is shaped by its Partnership Board, made up of representatives of these partners. 

Welcoming ZonMw and the British Academy, RoRI Executive Director James Wilsdon said:

“RoRI’s greatest asset is its partners. They generate many of the questions that we pursue; they are a source of data; and site for experimentation. So we’re delighted to welcome two new Core Partners into the RoRI fold. 

The British Academy has been a pioneer among national academies globally in advancing new methods to measure, value and articulate the contribution of SHAPE disciplines. ZonMw is an innovative funder with programmes spanning health, healthcare and wellbeing in the Netherlands, with a sophisticated approach to translation and impact, and a growing commitment to meta-research. We look forward to collaborating with them both on a range of projects over the next two years.”

ZonMw

Founded in 1998, ZonMw is a leading Dutch organisation in the field of health research and healthcare innovation. It funds knowledge development ranging from fundamental scientific research to practical implementation and evaluation research, knowledge utilisation and infrastructures, including consortia, (learning) networks, living labs, academic workplaces, partnerships and data infrastructures. 

As part of its current strategic plan (2025–2029), “Verbinden met kennis” (Connecting with knowledge), ZonMw has committed to strengthening its research on research activities. It aims to learn and reflect on its procedures and processes and to contribute systematically to research on research, aligning with international developments. This builds on earlier initiatives, including dedicated funding programmes and internal projects focused on responsible research practices and research on research. 

“ZonMw sees participation in this leading international network as a unique opportunity to further professionalise our core activities,” said Véronique Timmerhuis, Managing Director at ZonMw.

“It helps to reflect on the way we program and fund, and to provide even better scientific justification for this. We look forward to exchanging our knowledge and experiences with other research funders and researchers.“

The British Academy 

The British Academy is the UK’s National Academy for the humanities and social sciences. It invests in researchers and projects across the UK and overseas, engages the public with fresh thinking and debates, and brings together scholars, government, business and civil society to influence policy for the benefit of everyone.

The Academy is a funder of research and runs more than 20 funding schemes open to researchers across the UK and around the world. It also has a diverse Fellowship of more than 1,800 academics from the UK and around the world, elected for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences.

The Academy has engaged strongly with metascience as a field and community, championing the role of the social sciences and humanities as core disciplinary and methodological inputs to the expanding metascience agenda across UKRI and the wider UK system.

The British Academy, which has been closely engaged with RoRI’s AFIRE project, is trialling partial randomisation in its Small Research Grants scheme and has been a leading voice in measuring and understanding the impacts of research. In the past year, the Academy has been a partner in the Metascience 2025 Conference; hosted a Funders Exchange Forum with RoRI; and supported Dr Similo Ngwenya’s British Academy International Fellowship at RoRI and UCL

Dr Molly Morgan Jones, Director of Policy at the British Academy, said:

“We share RoRI’s view that efficient, responsive, impactful and fair research is essential to tackling the unprecedented global challenges of our time. We know that SHAPE research drives economic growth, improves wellbeing, and enhances our understanding of people and the societies in which we live. We are delighted to join RoRI as core partners, to unlock and harness the vast potential of international research.”