This letter followed evidence given by STFC Executive Chair Michele Dougherty to the Committee on 4 March. Today, our response to the letter has been published on the Committee's webpage. In the interest of openness and transparency UKRI is also publishing it here: www.ukri.org/publications...

National 'missions' are easy to announce (or propose). But history shows that they are extraordinarily difficult to pull off. Laura Ryan and I have pooled our thoughts about the government's 'AI for Science' missions – and what has to be true for this programme to be a success. 🔗👇

For more than a decade, there’s been a cross-party consensus behind increasing the UK govt’s R&D spending to drive economic growth - & there’s been a substantial real terms increase in the science budget. But the economic growth hasn’t arrived, yet. What happens if it doesn’t?

More stuff for fans of 'bucket theory' to chew over: committees.parliament.uk/committee/13...

I've written about the UKRI funding situation and the 'buckets' explainer, looking in detail at QR, STFC and Quantum. www.ersatzben.com/p/the-bucket...

This is one of the absolute best things I’ve read on the potential impacts of AI on society and democracy. Forensic, principled, and sober. Bravo, @williamcb.bsky.social!!

Looking again at the UKRI funding 'buckets', I find it weird that QR has been put into 'Bucket 1' (curiosity-driven research), given that it supports a range of activity across all buckets, and REF does not only measure 'curiosity'.

Quick science policy thread 1 Changes in the governance of UK science since the mid 1980s make it extremely hard to be strategic (that was the point), in terms of both process (dropped) and capability (hollowed out).

This is a very good letter.

A little highlight of the new year for me is @igmansfield.bsky.social's forecasting contest. You can enter here, until 18 January! www.edrith.co.uk/p/2026-forec...

My unpopular opinion: Erasmus+ is an elitist waste of money that only benefits young adults that have already “won” by (a) making it to university, and (b) having the plummy, ski-seasoned social capital to have heard of the scheme in the first place.

The government has talked about organising R&D into three 'buckets' - discovery research, research aligned to government priorities, and business support. This is a good idea that could fail in the implementation. Here are my 10 tests for success: www.ersatzben.com/p/the-three-...

I’ll do a detailed Substack take on the DSIT R&D allocations soon — but, on the surface read, it looks like positive news on funding levels and prioritisation. Outstanding Qs: intra-UKRI allocs (esp Dual Support); OLS-IS vfm; ARIA ramp-up readiness; AI implementation pathway

Some quick thoughts on the UK post-16 white paper's implications for research: www.ersatzben.com/p/uk-post-16...

Delighted to be a winner in the latest round of Emergent Ventures! marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo... I will be pursuing R&D data analytics for policy, building on the work I've been doing on interdisciplinary metrics.

@ersatzben.bsky.social asks for #Science policy not to weaken standards, but rather to rediscover a form of democratic splendour: demonstration statecraft that inspires awe by visibly delivering on ambitious goals.

A great piece from @ersatzben.bsky.social on the importance of bold, aesthetic, mission-oriented directions in publicly funded research. betterscienceproject.substack.com/p/the-counte...

British research has perfected discipline and outsourced magnificence. The fix is to practise demonstration statecraft – visible proofs of capacity that pair theatre with delivery. A new essay by me for the Better Science Project: betterscienceproject.substack.com/p/the-counte...

What if – hear me out – some people just sincerely think digital ID would be a good idea for public policy and that the trade-off with civil liberties is worth taking, and a weird quasi-conspiracy isn't required?

Do feed into this very interesting project looking at the different available R&D interventions

🚨🔧 NEW R&D POLICY TOOLKIT LAUNCHED 🪏🚨 Excited to launch a new @BritishProgress product: an interactive toolkit for UK R&D analysts and policymakers! 🔗 rd-toolkit.britishprogress.org Thread below🧵

🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨 The Alan Turing Institute has visibly struggled, and is now at a critical juncture. The Secretary of State has intervened. What happens next? A new report for @britishprogress.bsky.social by me and @jujulemons.bsky.social sets out a plan: 🧵

Open Philanthropy have been a terrific partner in the work of the UK Metascience Unit. Two things I’d mention in particular: (a) the very high quality of the metascience work OP do on their own account (eg Matt Clancy’s thoughtful articles)…

This is a really interesting piece that cleverly picks apart the notion of critical technologies, and proposes a framework for A&H research that extends the concept in a way that DSIT ought to find very challenging.

This is an interesting idea from @ersatzben.bsky.social and well worth a read. It also flags up the importance of QR/REG in supporting interdisciplinary research. Something many of us have been trying to articulate in discussions on QR/REG changes for a while, so good to have some actual data on it.

Extremely interesting work by @ersatzben.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/johnsonb...

Interesting analysis from @ersatzben.bsky.social on what makes good interdisciplinary research. UKRI doesn’t come out well. ‘Despite integration within single UKRI umbrella, UK government funding seems to remain unusually focussed on silos of activity….’ johnsonb.substack.com/p/what-actua...

@ersatzben.bsky.social with a super interesting and challenging piece on #interdisciplinary #research. This will demand and repay a lot of careful reading. I have thoughts... but it's a fantastically interesting challenge to us as researchers and as funders!!

Interesting bit of research from @ersatzben.bsky.social suggesting QR funding is really critical for supporting interdisciplinary research johnsonb.substack.com/p/what-actua...

What counts as interdisciplinary research? And can we tell who is actually funding it, versus just talking about it? A data-driven deep-dive from me here: open.substack.com/pub/johnsonb...

I'll be at Metascience 2025 this week. HMU if you want to chat!

This is a very good piece.

UK seems to have won around 30% of the ERC Advanced Grants in humanities and social sciences - great result. Good to be in Horizon again erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

No signs of an end to rapid gains in AI ability at ever-decreasing costs, yet I did my best to update my chart to take into account the price drop in o3 & new models released by Google GPT-4 was released 2.25 ago, so its worth noting the trend when considering the future of AI capabilities & cost

What’s the return on government support for R&D? To try to get a credible answer, Open Philanthropy and the Sloan Foundation are committing up to $1 million to trying something new: we call it a Pop-Up Journal.

UK overtakes Germany in winning most ERC Advanced Grants. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Key positioning question: does the sector want to be rescued from its current position, or backed with substantial investment to deliver clear public benefit? Because if it acts like it wants the former, then I suspect it will struggle to get the latter.

There is a difference between an ‘expert’ and ‘a vocal academic with a strong opinion’. Of course, much of the media completely unable to make this distinction.

'Such gargantuan cuts would see the number of people who receive support from the NSF fall from 330,000 to about 90,000 a year, Nature reported, resulting in success rates potentially dropping from 26 per cent to just 7 per cent.' 2/2

'His congressional budget requests for 2026 codify huge cuts to science agencies: 25 per cent for Nasa, 40 per cent for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a jaw-dropping 57 per cent for the National Science Foundation (NSF).' 1/2

It appears to be broadly good news for R&D in the SR. Well done to DSIT et al

The next few months will determine the outlook for the UK #LifeSciences research landscape for a decade. An article from me on how Government needs to maximise the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls: news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/06/05/5... 1/

Free-to-read opinion: Europe's response to US research disruption requires it to confront fundamental questions about institutional purpose, writes @ersatzben.bsky.social www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

What happens when the US retreats from science – and what can the rest of us can do about it? Some thoughts from me in Research Europe today www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro... @resprofnews.bsky.social

NEW ABUNDANCE AGENDA OUT NOW! 🏠 Why planning is even more broken than we thought 📈 New @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social polling reveals the British public's secret YIMBY views 🪖 @ersatzben.bsky.social on defence innovation Listen/Subscribe: www.abundancepod.com/p/britain-is...

No sign that the Trump war on academia is cooling down. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Link to full briefing here: britishprogress.org/briefings/es...

Britain’s long-term economic growth and strategic heft depend on winning top-tier scientists, engineers, and technical founders. Following the government's announcement of a new head-hunting unit for exceptional talent, I wrote for @britishprogress.bsky.social on what it should look like:

There are many interesting points in this piece from @ersatzben.bsky.social and @pedroserodio.com but this is a key one for me and aligns with much of what I've been writing about recently. The ability to shape technological change is crucial.

This is a really insightful piece from @ersatzben.bsky.social & @pedroserodio.com about the importance of R&D to the UK's future - very timely with the Spending Review coming up!