The UK launched the world’s first government-backed metascience unit – what next?

By establishing a Metascience Unit within its Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in November 2023, the UK became the first country in the world to give metascience a formal institutional berth in government.

Working with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and across Whitehall, the unit has a starting budget of £10m to conduct experiments, test and evaluate the effectiveness of new approaches to research and innovation funding.

In April, an initial call for grant proposals was announced by UKRI, in partnership with Open Philanthropy, with £5 million available to fund UK-based researchers from all disciplines who want to conduct metascience research that can improve our understanding of what works in the R&D system.

The first call closed in mid-July, and James Wilsdon, RoRI’s Executive Director, will chair the panel reviewing the applications. Up to £300,000 will be awarded to around 15 successful projects, which will then run over a period of six to 24 months.

Speaking to Nature, James Wilsdon said that he hoped to see a good mix of shorter-term, high-impact projects, and contributions to building longer-term data and insights into how the R&D system is working, and ways it might be improved.

He added:

When Sir John Kingman stepped down in 2021 as Chair of UKRI, he ended his valedictory speech with a lament that too much of the way we fund research relies on the “gut feel” of individuals. Now both DSIT and UKRI can point to concrete progress in moving beyond guts and towards good evidence as the basis on which to determine policy and funding. This is a big leap forwards, and a model for building metascientific capacity which I’m sure other governments will be watching with interest.

You can read the full piece in Nature here.