RoRI is building a community of people who want to change research for the better.
Administrative Assistant and PA to the Executive Director
Administrative Assistant and PA to James Wilsdon (Executive Director), RoRI
Precious Achiaa-Frimpong holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and a master’s in business management from the University of Hull. She has a strong background in administration and customer service, including experience in higher education residence management.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Researcher, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) at Aarhus University in Denmark
Jens Peter is a senior researcher at the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) at Aarhus University in Denmark. Jens Peter is involved with the Funder Data Platform and is a researcher on the Matthew and Portfolio projects. The focus of his research is on bridging the science and sociology of science, using quantitative and computational methods to analyse inequalities, hierarchies and other social phenomena in academia. He is currently principal investigator of the Scientific Elites research project.
Director
Director, RoRI CIC and Senior Impact Partner, Novo Nordisk Foundation
Gert is a Director of the RoRI CIC Board and a Senior Impact Partner at the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Denmark, where he has worked since 2014. He is also a member of the Strategic Committee for Researchfish (UK) and a former board member of UK NIHR Impact Advisory Board (UK).
He was editor of The experimental research funder’s handbook, which RoRI published in 2022, and he chairs the steering group for RoRI’s Funder Data Platform. Gert has a background in knowledge transfer and research evaluation at a national and international level.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI and Assistant Professor in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Birmingham
Justyna Bandola-Gill is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. Her research sits at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies and Public Policy, exploring how knowledge is produced, evaluated, and applied in decision-making contexts.
Justyna’s work focuses on two interconnected areas. The first examines the use of evidence in policymaking, with a particular interest in how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are reconfiguring the relationship between science and policy.
The second area of her research focuses on contemporary practices of research evaluation. She is interested in how institutions assess academic work, with a focus on research impact, the role of metrics and indicators, and assessment experiments such as narrative CVs. Her work considers both the practical and cultural implications of these evaluation systems, examining how they shape academic practice, incentive structures, and the broader research ecosystem.
Justyna is currently a UKRI AI Metascience Fellow, leading a project titled “Transforming Evidence Synthesis: AI and the (R)evolution of the Evidence Ecosystem.” The project explores how AI transforms the production of evidence for policy, reshapes professional norms and career paths of experts, and redefines the interactions between science and policymaking through emerging AI evidence infrastructures.
She is currently co-leading the AI and Sustainability research theme at the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action.
Communications and Impact Manager
Communications and Impact Manager, RoRI
Geanina is a strategic communications expert who manages RoRI’s media relations, reputation strategy, and international stakeholder engagement. At RoRI, she oversees the institute’s research outputs from a design and presentation perspective, converting complex research into accessible visual formats. She also leads the institute’s branding and digital presence, managing its Substack, website, and social channels.
Geanina joined RoRI from the arts and heritage sector, where she managed marketing and advocacy campaigns. In 2023, she was awarded the Memcom Award for Best Social Media Presence for her success in crafting data-driven digital strategies.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI and Senior Research Fellow, National Institute for Health and Care Research Coordinating Centre (Centre for Business Intelligence – Insight & Evaluation)
Amanda Blatch-Jones is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), based at the University of Southampton.
With over 15 years of experience in Research on Research, she is passionate about open research practices, transparency, and enhancing research funding practices. She had led multiple projects exploring how funders can enhance their practices to ensure research is appropriately reported, proportionately monitored, and demonstrates both the value of investment and real-world impact.
She works collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders, serves on several research advisory and steering groups, and contributes as an editor and peer reviewer for several academic journals.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Center Director, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) at Aarhus University in Denmark
Carter is Professor and Center Director of the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) at Aarhus University in Denmark. Research areas include research evaluation, economic analysis of the R&D, innovation and productivity, public sector innovation, quality work in higher education, and policy relevant indicators of science and innovation.
Most recently, Carter’s work has focused on how research and innovation funding programs are designed and how they shape research and its scientific and societal impacts. As part of this work, he has lead the PROSECON project funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and has contributed to a number of other studies of innovative funding programs such as ODIN, the Villum Experiment and the recently started Plant2Food project. Together with colleagues at CFA, Carter is coordinating and maintaining work on RoRI’s Funder Data Platform.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Data Scientist, the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA), Aarhus University
Emer is a data scientist at the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA) at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. She has previously worked as a postdoc and research assistant within the department, supporting various quantitative projects. She is currently responsible for managing RoRI’s Funder Data Platform and was a participant in the PORTFOLIOS project.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Researcher, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
André Brasil is a researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS | Leiden University), focusing on national evaluation systems, scientometrics, scholarly publishing, open science, responsible research and innovation (RRI) and diversity in science, especially concerning multilingualism and geographic inclusion.
As part of his activities, he is a member of the UNESCO Chair for Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science, a research fellow at the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), and a member of the European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (ENRESSH). André is also affiliated with the Brazilian Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), working at the Division of Studies and Research in Evaluation.
Research Fellow
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).
Director
Director, RoRI CIC and Director of Research Strategy & Policy, UCL Public Policy Team
Sarah Chaytor is a Co-Director of the Research on Research Institute and the Director of Research Strategy & Policy at UCL, where she established and leads the UCL Public Policy programme. Her work focuses on building institutional capacity for policy engagement, leading research policy initiatives, and managing strategic higher education projects.
Sarah is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN), where she also serves as Director of Programmes. Her recent leadership roles include heading the Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement (CAPE) project and serving as Principal Investigator for the International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO).
Prior to her current roles, Sarah held research policy positions at the Russell Group, the Wellcome Trust, and Universities UK, and worked as a parliamentary researcher. She is also a Visiting Professor of Practice at Newcastle University and Vice President (Policy & Partnerships) at the British Science Association.
Research Fellow
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:
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.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Researcher, CWTS, Leiden University
Rodrigo Costas is a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University. Rodrigo is also an Extraordinary Associate Professor at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) of Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
He holds a PhD in Library and Information Science from the CSIC in Spain. His areas of expertise include the fields of information science, scientometrics, and social media metrics. His work focuses on developing new theoretical and analytical approaches to understand the interactions between science and society.
Some of his research topics include the development of novel scientometric approaches to study the global academic workforce, particularly the mobility flows of scientific researchers, and the study of funding acknowledgments.
In addition to his research activities, Rodrigo is also involved in several European and international research projects, and he is a member of the CWTS UNESCO Chair on Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science. He is also an Associate Editor of the journal Quantitative Science Studies.
At RoRI, Rodrigo brings his quantitative expertise to develop novel approaches to monitor and study different dimensions of the science system, including indicators of academic mobility, funding flows, and science-society interactions.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Researcher, CWTS, Leiden University
Nees Jan van Eck is senior researcher and head of data science at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he leads data infrastructure projects and coordinates the Information & Openness focal area.
Drawing on extensive technical expertise and deep knowledge of diverse scientometric data sources and tools, Nees Jan focuses on studying and developing infrastructures, algorithms, and tools to support research assessment, science policy, and scholarly communication.
With a strong interest in transparent and democratic decision-making in science, he emphasizes the importance of open and equitable access to research information. Nees Jan is the architect and lead developer of the CWTS Leiden Ranking Open Edition, the first fully transparent worldwide university ranking based on open and reproducible data. He is also the developer of VOSviewer, a widely used software tool for analyzing and visualizing bibliometric data, which has been cited in more than 50,000 scientific publications.
Head of Operations
Head of Collaboration and Learning
Head of Collaboration and Learning, RoRI and Honorary Fellow, The Open University
Jude has over 20 years of experience as a policy analyst, research funding advisor and academic researcher with an interdisciplinary background spanning comparative literature, education, development and science and technology studies.
Jude is interested in the geo-politics of knowledge production, equitable partnerships, community-engagement with research and inclusive funding (see publications). She has worked for a range of organisations including the OECD, UNESCO, ActionAid International, IDS-Sussex, UCL-Institute of Education and the Open University, and continues to serve as an associate advisor for The Wellcome Trust, National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), UKRI’s Public Engagement unit and the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education (through PRIA International).
Jude works at the trans-national level (formerly co-convening the Rethinking Research Collaborative), national level (advising policy makers primarily in the UK and Canada) and local level (coordinating a community-based research programme in a council estate in London). She enjoys creative writing and is a London Library Emerging Writer (2024-2025), represented by BKS literary agency.
Treasurer and Director
Treasurer and Independent Director, RoRI CIC
Paul Gemmill retired from UK Research and Innovation in 2023 where amongst other roles he was Chief Operating Officer of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a board member of The Pirbright Institute, a world leading centre of excellence in research and surveillance of virus diseases of farm animals and viruses that spread from animals to human.
At BBSRC, Paul led for the UK Research Councils on the 2015 UK Government Spending Review, helping to secure the £1.5Bn Global Challenges Research Fund. Prior to joining the RoRI board as Treasurer, Paul served on the Board of ORCID until early 2024, where latterly he was chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Paul is the Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Biology and a member of the BBSRC EDI Expert Advisory Group and the ORCID Nominations Committee.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI and Professor, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Kathryn is a Professor in Research & Innovation Impact and Assessment at the University of Calgary. She conducts Research on Research to better understand the underlying conditions and success factors for enhancing better outcomes for local and global communities. Her name is synonymous with advancing the science and practice of assessing and activating impact.
She has dedicated 30 years to advising organizations on how to strategically design, implement and scale for real world impact. She is an Organizational Psychologist by training, with a passion for embedding management systems across institutions to address societal challenges.
She recently co-authored a book on the cornerstones of impact management that outlines the nuts and bolts of how to plan, implement, assess and manage for success.
She is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and co-founder of the International School on Research Impact Assessment with a focus on training the next generation of impact professionals.
In 2022, Kathryn received the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta) and in 2023, she was a co-recipient of an International Startup Ecosystem Star Award for building local innovation ecosystems.
She sits on numerous international committees and panels as an advisor. She is a bridge builder and brings international experience and innovative practices to bear when fostering a positive impact culture.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Researcher, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
Kathleen Gregory is a researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University. Her work focuses primarily on exploring practices and infrastructures involved in open science, research data management and research evaluation, drawing on methods and concepts from Library and Information Science and Science and Technology Studies.
Kathleen is also a guest researcher at the Scholarly Communications Lab at the University of Ottawa and a Research Fellow at the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), where she is active in the Peer Review project.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Researcher, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
Jeroen van Honk is a researcher at CWTS, active both in research projects and services work. His focus tends to be on data collection and processing, with special emphasis on funding data and author disambiguation. He is also a bibliometric analyst.
Jeroen is an active part of CWTS’ Information & Openness focal area, as well as a member of the institute’s external communication and Applied Research Lab teams. Within RoRI, he operates as managing editor for MetaROR.
Director
Chair and Director, RoRI CIC and CEO, Digital Science
Daniel Hook has served as CEO of Digital Science since 2015. He started his career as co-founder of Symplectic, a research information management provider. His career has centered around the creation of infrastructures that support researchers and the research ecosystem. He is currently Chair of RoRI’s Community Interest Company. Daniel holds a PhD in theoretical physics.
Director
Independent Director, RoRI CIC and President and Executive Director, Addgene
Chonnettia Jones is the President and Executive Director at Addgene, a life sciences repository dedicated to accelerating scientific discovery and innovation by providing researchers around the world with access to high-quality research materials.
With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Chonnettia has held leadership roles in purpose-driven organizations in Canada, UK/Europe, and US, where she has made contributions to advancing science and health research. In her previous role at Michael Smith Health Research BC, Chonnettia directed strategic initiatives and funding programs to drive impactful outcomes in health research across British Columbia. Her tenure at the Wellcome Trust was marked by her role in evaluating the effectiveness of global health research funding. While at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she managed an international collaborative program that developed cutting-edge tools for scientific exploration.
As a co-founder of the Research on Research Institute, Chonnettia envisioned that research systems and research cultures can be positively transformed by evidence that can be used to inform how research funding, practices and policies can be made more effective, equitable, and inclusive. Her leadership in championing open science, responsible research assessment, and equitable research is reflected in her participation on various international advisory boards in science, technology, and scholarly communications.
Chonnettia earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry, cell, and developmental biology from Emory University. Through her career and volunteer work she continues to advocate for transformative change in the global research ecosystem.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Researcher, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner is a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His research focuses on the politics of quantification in evaluation processes; academic curricula vitae as devices for comparison in peer review; as well as practices of publishing, reviewing, and editing academic literature.
Wolfgang joined the RoRI team in 2022 and co-leads RoRI’s project on narrative CVs.
Visiting Research Fellow
Visiting Research Fellow, RoRI and Postdoctoral Research Associate, National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Tom is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, working on the relationship between governance and productivity. After finishing his PhD at King’s College London, his career has shifted between the worlds of policy and academia, working, for instance, on tech policy for the UK Civil Service. He writes about defence policy, industrial strategy, and British politics.
Head of Programmes
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
Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Research Analyst at DST-Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science
Moumita Koley is a senior research analyst at the DST-Centre for Policy Research, IISc, Bangalore, India. She also worked as a consultant for the International Science Council’s Future of Scientific Publishing project between March 2023 and June 2024.
Her research interest is in enhancing the accessibility of scientific output, making the research ecosystem more efficient and responsible, and ensuring that research is responsive to local problems.
Moumita holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, where she focused on synthesising small molecules that can direct the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells towards heart muscle cells. Later, she became interested in exploring the structure and evolution of science, including various dimensions of open science, such as open access, open research data, and research evaluation.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI
Seunghyun is a Research Fellow in Metascience who joined RoRI in 2025. Her work with RoRI focuses on the AGORRA (A Global Observatory of Responsible Research Assessment) project, contributing to efforts to reform research assessment and strengthen the role of research in society.
Seunghyun is a policy researcher and analyst with expertise in science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy, research assessment, and institutional strategy. Her doctoral research at the University of Manchester explored the positioning of public research institutes within national innovation systems, suggesting a new framework for evaluating research actors through bibliometric and network analysis. This work contributes to emerging debates in metascience around interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and innovation.
Before joining RoRI, Seunghyun worked with leading national and international organisations, including the OECD and Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), on STI strategy, capability indicators, and evaluation of public research institutes.
Co-Chair
Co-Chair, RoRI and Executive Director, Corporate Strategy and Performance, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada
Matthew Lucas is Executive Director, Corporate Strategy and Performance, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. He oversees corporate operations and governance, parliamentary affairs, data analytics, policy development, and international engagement.
He is active in the field of open science and chairs the federal granting agencies’ Open Science Executive Committee and led the development Canda’s Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy.
Prior to SSHRC, Matthew worked at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada where he held several positions, including Senior Policy Advisor to the Science, Technology and Innovation Council Secretariat, and the Departmental Advisor to the Minister of State for Science and Technology.
Matthew received his PhD from the University of Toronto in the area of science, technology and innovation policy.
UKRI Metascience AI Early Career Fellow
UKRI AI Metascience Early Career Fellow, RoRI
Basil is a Research Fellow at RoRI, where he leverages computational methods to understand how research informs policy. He is a UKRI AI Metascience Early Career Fellow investigating how AI systems will transform the way science reaches policymakers.
This work builds upon his PhD in Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy at University College London (UCL), where he developed machine learning approaches to study how governments access and use research.
Basil’s research has been supported by partnerships with Elsevier and visiting fellowships at Northwestern University’s Centre for Science of Science & Innovation and Harvard University’s Centre for International Development. His work has been published in journals including Patterns and Sustainable Development, and presented at major international conferences including MetaScience, the Annual International Conference on Science and Technology Indicator, and the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy.
Before academia, Basil co-founded SynSapien, a collective intelligence platform connecting innovators globally to tackle societal challenges. He also worked as a strategic communications consultant for universities and research organisations in Qatar. His interdisciplinary background spans environmental technology (MSc, Imperial College London) and international politics (BSc, Georgetown University).
His research interests focus on how AI and technology can enhance science by making it more accessible and impactful for society.
About the UKRI Fellowship
Basil’s UKRI AI Metascience Fellowship investigates a fundamental question at the intersection of artificial intelligence and evidence-based policymaking: how will AI systems change which scientific evidence informs government decisions? As governments increasingly adopt AI-powered tools for evidence identification, this research will provide the first large-scale empirical analysis of whether AI recommendations systematically differ from human-selected evidence. In collaboration with Northwestern Centre for Science of Science and Innovation and Elsevier, the fellowship will compare what policymakers have historically cited in systematic reviews and policy documents against what AI would recommend for the same topics, at scale. This will reveal the ‘invisible college’ of researchers whose work AI consistently identifies as policy-relevant but who remain unrecognised in current evidence pathways.
Research Fellow
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.
Co-Chair and Director
Co-Chair, RoRI & Director, RoRI CIC and Co-Director, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Katrin is Co-Chair and Director of RoRI, and Co-Director at the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Over the past decade, she has expanded strategic capabilities at the SNSF and promoted the development of research on research activities.
She has also built consensus on an inclusive model of research excellence, co-authored the Swiss National Open Research Data Strategy and contributed policy advice on research priorities to the Tunisian government. Katrin studied in Oxford and Brussels and earned her doctorate in Geneva in the field of discourse analysis and European politics.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Professor of Research Communication at the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University
Cameron Neylon is Professor of Research Communication at the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University where he is co-lead on the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative. He is interested in how to make the internet more effective as a tool for scholarship. He writes and speaks regularly on scholarly communication, the design of web based tools for research, and the need for policy and cultural change within and around the research community.
Cameron Neylon is a one-time biomedical scientist who has moved into the humanities via Open Access and Open Data advocacy. His research and broader work focusses on how we can make the institutions that support research sustainable and fit for purpose for the 21st century and how the advent of new communications technology is a help (and in some cases a hindrance) for this.
British Academy Research Fellow
British Academy Research Fellow, RoRI
Similo is a British Academy Research Fellow at RoRI. She works on a metascientific study that explores and analyses the changing landscape, impacts and interdependencies of social science, humanities and arts (SHAPE) research in Southern Africa.
She previously worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, where she was part of an international project exploring the interplay between evaluation and inequalities in science, using forestry as an empirical case.
Her research interests include studies of science policy, epistemic inequity, inclusion and exclusion, research collaboration, research evaluation, and bibliometric and scientometric analysis.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and PhD Candidate at CWTS, Leiden University
Nina Gogadze is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University.
Nina is an alumna of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree Programme in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE) and holds a master’s degree from the University for Continuing Education Krems and Tampere University.
Her research interests include research assessment reform movements, national research evaluation systems, and the Europeanisation of higher education and science policies in post-Soviet countries.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Professor, University of Sheffield
Stephen Pinfield is Professor of Information Services Management at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Senior Research Fellow in the Research on Research Institute. He has a particular interest in scholarly communication, open science, research data management, and research policy.
He has a strong record of involvement in national and international policy development, and creation of systems and services to support innovative scholarly communication and open science. He previously worked as an information manager, latterly as CIO at the University of Nottingham.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Independent Researcher, the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina
Laura Rovelli is an independent researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina, and professor at La Plata National University (UNLP) in Argentina. She is interested in research assessment change and policies in Latin America, with a focus on research assessment ideas and instruments, incentives for open science and doctoral evaluation, and research training in higher education.
Laura Rovelli is a political scientist and has a PhD in Social Science from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 2020 to 2024, she coordinated the Latin American Forum for Research Assessment (FOLEC) from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and since 2022 onwards, she is a member of the Executive Board of DORA.
At present, she leads a research project on the potentialities and challenges in early academic career researchers in Latin America and is member of CLACSO’s WG “Open Science as a Common Good”.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Assistant Professor at CWTS, Leiden University
Alex Rushforth is Assistant Professor at CWTS, Leiden University, the Netherlands. He works in the social studies of science, with particular focus on research evaluation. Alex has longstanding interests in the uses of indicators in research and evaluation settings and his current research interests focus on the emergence, implementation and (un)intended effects of reform policies for research assessment.
Alex is currently coordinator of RoRi’s AgoRRA Project, with James Wilsdon and Claire Fraser.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI and Research Professor Emeritus, the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU)
Gunnar Sivertsen is Research Professor Emeritus at the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) in Oslo, Norway. Sivertsen’s research contributes to science-based innovation in the development of research policy, evaluation, and funding, and in the use of aggregate indicators for the same purposes.
Senior Research Fellow
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.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI
Andy Stirling is Emeritus Professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University, Honorary Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL and Visiting Professor in CWTS at Leiden University.
Among many other projects, he was co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre, with work focusing especially on issues of power, uncertainty and diversity in struggles towards equality, peace and ecological flourishing. Formerly a campaigner and boardmember for Greenpeace, he has worked with many civil society, commercial and governmental organisations and served on many national and international advisory bodies.
A Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Science, he presently serves on the Research Council of CIFAR and as a panelmember for the 2029 UK Research Excellence Framework.
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow, RoRI and Senior Researcher, CWTS-Leiden
Vincent Traag is a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands. His main interests are mathematical models in the social sciences with a focus on (social) networks. More recently he has developed an interest in causal inference. Traag obtained his Master in sociology (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam (2008).
Coming from a computer science background, and taking up mathematics during his studies in sociology, he went on to obtain a PhD in applied mathematics in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2013). He joined CWTS in 2015.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Researcher, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
Judit Varga is a Researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She is a social scientist with a doctorate in science and technology studies (STS) (University of Nottingham, 2021) and a background in psychology. Her work focuses on exploring the interactions between quantitative and interpretative methods in social science; the politics of quantification; values in science (evaluation); interdisciplinarity; and science in society.
Her doctoral research provided new methodological insights about combining STS and scientometrics, and explored interdisciplinary interactions in a subfield of computational social science.
As part of RoRI, Judit studies how narrative CVs shape science evaluation with Helen Buckley Woods and Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner.
Research Fellow
Research Fellow, RoRI and Academic Secretary and Research Director, the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)
Pablo Ariel Vommaro is Academic Secretary and Research Director of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). He holds a post-doctorate in Social Sciences, Childhood, and Youth from a collaborative program between Universidad Católica de Sao Paulo, Universidad de Manizales, CINDE, Universidad Nacional de Lanús, and CLACSO. He earned his Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the School of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
As an Independent Researcher at CONICET, Pablo is also a Professor of History at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). He co-coordinates the Group of Studies in Politics and Youths and leads several nationally and internationally accredited research and extension projects. His academic involvement extends to being a professor and researcher at the UBA’s Faculties of Philosophy and Literature and Social Sciences, contributing to the Departments of History and Sociology, as well as to postgraduate programs.
Co-Chair
Co-Chair, RoRI and Professor & Scientific Director, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
Ludo Waltman is scientific director and professor of Quantitative Science Studies at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University.
Ludo’s work focuses on studying and developing infrastructures, algorithms, and tools to support research assessment, science policy, and scholarly communication. Ludo is open science ambassador of Leiden University, president of ASAPbio, chair of the advisory board of OpenCitations, and one of the initiators of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. Together with his colleague Nees Jan van Eck, Ludo has developed the well-known VOSviewer software for bibliometric visualization. Ludo serves as Editor-in-Chief of the MetaROR (MetaResearch Open Review) platform. Previously he was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Quantitative Science Studies.
Executive Director
Executive Director, RoRI
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 Research Fellow
Helen joined RoRI in 2019, and in 2023 moved as part of RoRI’s core team to the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London (UCL). She is now a Senior Research Fellow in Metascience, and leads or co-leads a number of RoRI’s flagship projects.
Helen is a social scientist with a doctorate in higher education studies. Her thesis: Knowledge production and disciplinary practices in a British University: A qualitative cross-disciplinary case study explored researchers’ views about knowledge production, evaluation, and dissemination in British higher education.
Before joining RoRI, Helen worked for ten years at Sheffield’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) as an information scientist. At ScHARR she led information retrieval and data management activities for systematic reviews and evidence syntheses projects, commissioned by organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Department of Health and Social Care, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
UKRI AI Metascience Early Career Fellow
UKRI AI Metascience Early Career Fellow, RoRI and Lecturer, University College London
Youyou Wu is an Associate Professor of Psychology at University College London, based in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at IOE.
Trained as a psychologist, her research applies computational methods, including machine learning and natural language processing, to the study of individual differences such as personality. More recently, her work has expanded into metascience, focusing on how AI can improve research systems.
She joined the Research on Research Institute (RoRI) in 2024 as part of the GRAIL project, developing best practices for the use of AI in research funding. She also contributes to the AFIRE project, which helps funders design AI-related experiments.
In 2025, she was awarded the UKRI Metascience AI Early Career Fellowship to study the influence of generative AI on the language of science.
Youyou’s project will investigate whether generative AI is reinventing the language of science in research publications, and the implications for peer review. It builds on her previous work at RoRI, where she developed AI guidance for research funders worldwide. She will collaborate with the UK Metascience Unit to translate insights from her research into policy recommendations. The fellowship will connect her with international metascience researchers, including a parallel cohort in the US and Canada, creating opportunities to collaborate and contribute to global debates on AI and the future of research.
Visiting Senior Fellow
Visiting Senior Fellow, RoRI
Lin Zhang is Professor of Information Management at Wuhan University, China. She is Executive Director of the NSFC–Wuhan University Observatory for Global Basic Research, Director of the Ministry of Education-funded Research Evaluation Reform Centre at Wuhan University, and Editor-in-Chief of Scientometrics.
Her research focuses on scientometrics, research evaluation, research policy, and the governance of research systems. She has held visiting and affiliated positions at the Centre for R&D Monitoring (ECOOM) at KU Leuven and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University.
Lin’s recent work examines research assessment reform, open research information infrastructures, and international scientific collaboration. She currently leads the work on the China Fundamental Research Development Report, a NSFC-funded initiative that explores how open research information and new analytical approaches can support a better understanding of global fundamental research systems and their evolution.
As a Visiting Senior Fellow at RoRI, she contributes perspectives from China and supports comparative research on research systems, funding, evaluation, and science governance.
