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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.