Fascinating paper! Scholars who are secular are more likely to believe in secularization & find evidence of it in their research. The opposite pattern is true for scholars who are religious. This is worth your time to read in full: sociologicalscience.com/download/vol...

DSIT is looking for ideas about what public data to focus on making available (to business) within the National Data Library. www.gov.uk/government/p...

It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of our friend and colleague Prof Sir David Metcalf. Together with Richard Layard and Stephen Nickell, David set up the Centre for Labour Economics which became CEP in 1990. Read more: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/news/abstract.asp?index=11063

There’s been some concern and speculation in recent days about the future of curiosity-driven and applied research in the UK. This letter from UKRI CEO Ian Chapman provides some helpful context on what’s really going on. I hope you find it useful. www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

New Metascience funding opportunity! We're holding an interactive "sandpit" to develop research projects that develop, validate, and critique novel scientometric indicators for research assessment and future metascience research. £3m funding available. Apply here: www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

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...

Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...

I keep coming back to this fascinating post by an Australian research, Chris Berg, about the role of think-tanks in the social science ecosystem. chrisbergaus.substack.com/p/think-tank...

Wonderful to see Philippe Aghion of the @cep-lse.bsky.social recognised, alongside Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr, in this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Three unusually deserving winners!

Excited to launch ESRC's major investment in METIUS, led by @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social, with a host of global partners. METIUS will harness AI to provide timely, reliable evidence synthesis on major societal challenges to policymakers across the globe. www.ukri.org/news/ai-inve...

We are pleased to announce the appointment of three new governors. Karen Reid, Kim Graham and @stianwestlake.bsky.social​ bring experience spanning public service, academia, and policy innovation, reinforcing our commitment to building a healthier UK. Read more⬇️ https://bit.ly/3Ie9Mhg

Designers! We're looking to hire a graphic designer and typesetter based in London to oversee and do the production of our upcoming print edition at Works in Progress magazine. If you like this work below, you might be the person for us! More detail: www.worksinprogress.news/p/were-hirin...

Announcing Generation New Era: the first UK-wide birth cohort study in 25 years. It will study 30,000 children born in 2026 across the four nations of the UK. Watch out for upcoming opportunities for researchers and other stakeholders to engage with the study team via @clscohorts.bsky.social

An important element of the new ESRC strategy we are working on is to make the promotion of economic growth an explicit goal of our work. I've written a short piece about why we're doing this, and what that might involve. magicsmoke.substack.com/p/promoting-...

29 scholars reflect on their participation in adversarial collaborations: “Rather than producing a clear 'winner,' the most common outcome was a deeper understanding of the problem space through the integration of opposing perspectives” Open Access: doi.org/10.1007/s111... #MetaSci #Methodology 🧪

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)…

Nice write-up in @nature.com of the UK Metascience Unit's experiments with Distributed Peer Review. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Hanging out with the ESRC’s founder in Huddersfield, ahead of today’s Y-PERN conference - a great chance to discuss how innovation and devolution can help Yorkshire flourish!

Delighted to see @ESRC's brilliant Executive Director of Research, Jen Gold, recognised in today's King's Birthday Honours for her contributions to metascience, evidence and research. Congratulations on the very well deserved honour!

So I wrote a thing. Here is the gist. My provocation was a bit of heresy aimed at my own tribe of decent, evidence-driven, apolitical policy wonks who quite sensibly worship at the altar of the arms-length institution, the predictable rule, politics-free decisions and so on ... 1/

Really interesting, very in-depth on how open science and replication efforts were funded and gradually grew more influential. Great example of what thoughtful philanthropy can accomplish. goodscience.substack.com/p/metascienc...

Something you don’t see any more: Tulameen raspberries. 10 years ago UK raspberries were Driscoll’s maravilla (sp?) out of season and Tulameen in season. Now they seem to be maravilla or Driscoll’s reyna all summer. Can any soft fruit experts on here explain what changed?

EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn. BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS. #EconSky

Good to see this new, short, readable report on innovation policy from @britishacademy.bsky.social - and that its top recommendation is investing in "how we measure research and innovation inputs and outputs", something we are busy working on! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

Could Trump's decision to go to war with US universities inadvertently save the UK's cash-strapped higher education sector? UK uni sources have told me they are already seeing foreign students who had intended to go to the US coming here instead inews.co.uk/news/politic... My @theipaper.com read:

There is a new Executive Order that is closely related to many of the topics promoted in the science reform movement. It deserves a close read as it will surely have implications for how some promoted reforms are implemented in policy and practice. My hot take 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Has anyone written a good account of the changes in English schools policy from say 2000-2020, looking at the interactions between government policy, developments in educational research, knowledge exchange (eg EEF), human capital (eg Teach First) and other factors?

Look who this "Abundance" review cites for the claim that the regulatory process isn't standing in the way of American nuclear.

UK commonly seen as having a scaling problem and too little late stage VC. Compared to the US, absolutely. But we do pretty well amongst the also-ran (after Canada, Estonia).

Very excited about our new paper on the large social returns to public R&D spending, which was prepared for the @NBER Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy Conference, 2025

Conventional wisdom says interdisciplinary research is valuable but harder to get through peer review (need to please diverse reviewers, etc). @sdxiang.bsky.social Daniel and I partnered with @ioppublishing.bsky.social to test this wisdom and add nuance

ESRC exec chair @stianwestlake.bsky.social wants it to be much simpler for non-university researchers to access research council funding - a "bewildering" process at present, he says. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

If you talk about AI on this site, you probably occasionally run into folks who think that AI is terrible for the environment. This post from @andymasley.bsky.social is my favorite on the topic, I recommend keeping it bookmarked so that you can link it when you see outlandish claims about energy use

Interesting piece on the financial architecture required to build sovereign manufacturing capacity in the West venturedesktop.substack.com/p/the-rise-o...

📣 New paper drop! Why do some employees take up training and others don’t, even when the programs are the same? Surprisingly, the answer isn’t HR policy—it’s middle managers. 🧵

Today, the Trust Board announced the winners of the 2025 Leverhulme Research Centre competition. Congratulations to the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space and Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War. Read more: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2025LRC

OK folks - will you please help me spread this far and wide. A really exciting opportunity to be the new Director of Comms at @britishacademy.bsky.social - the national academy for humanities and social sciences. £100k. Lovely team. Reports directly to me micro.green-park.co.uk/thebritishac...

💫 We’re launching the Centre for British Progress Our founding essay: Rediscovering British Progress is a case for growth that drives shared progress, rooted in Britain's values and industrial heritage. It all starts with a postcard from 1870 👇 britishprogress.org/articles/red...

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Associate Professorship in Economic and Social History, Faculty of History and All Souls College, Oxford. Deadline for applications 23 April 2025. @oxford-esh.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

An essay from @jo3hill.bsky.social which can be summarised as "Public interventions need clarity of outcome" reform.uk/publications...

Being an interim is often a thankless gig. So I wanted to pay tribute to Stella Peace, who has done a really incredible job as interim Exec Chair of @innovateuk, not just keeping the show on the road, but tackling a bunch of tough issues and fixing them.

Such a great choice for the new head of Innovate UK! Tom is an inspiring leader and a tech hero. www.gov.uk/government/n...

I've spent today at Belgium's Royal Higher Institute for Defence, discussing 'Russia's New Generation Warfare'. Every day brings new evidence that Russia is indeed waging a non-kinetic (mostly) war against Europe, & Europe is unable/unwilling to respond effectively, encouraging further attacks.

This may not be conducive to a quiet life, but I've written up some thoughts on the subject of "woke waste" in publicly funded research open.substack.com/pub/magicsmo...

After decades of stagnation, restaurant industry productivity surged after emergence from pandemic due in part to shorter customer dwell times, from Austan Goolsbee, Chad Syverson, Rebecca Goldgof, and Joe Tatarka https://www.nber.org/papers/w33555

Ipsos has published the 2025 version of Understanding Society, which uses 8 MRP models to provide a granular view of satisfaction with public services across the UK. This is an excellent tool for anyone interested in public satisfaction with the state.

I love @geoffmulgan.bsky.social's latest piece on the idea of "Strength Without Weight" as a vision for what a high-capacity state should look like. substack.com/home/post/p-...

We're searching for a Senior Program Officer to lead and grow our work on the new fund — check out the JD here: jobs.ashbyhq.com/openphilant...

NEW! I’ve teamed up with @mjrobbins.bsky.social to create a new podcast about growth and progress called: THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA. Each week we’re going to talk about news and ideas from this emerging movement. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2OrB7qx...