Could some airsafety wonks weigh in on when the US's capacity degrades so much that it's below international standards?

My grandfather worked at a Jewish restaurant in Golders Green for twenty years. When he was taken ill at work one day, this ambulance service rushed him to hospital. This is such a cowardly, immoral, hateful act.

Another forgotten story of an amazing woman - now recovered in a biography by her great-niece. She qualified at Kolkata Medical College, became physician to the royal household in Nepal, & the first female Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My paperback is out in less than a month. Pre-order now to get it day of release. 0% AI-generated or written (this feels like writing organic on food). www.penguin.co.uk/books/458539...

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims fought in the world wars. The armies that fought+won the second world war against fascism had an ethnic + faith mix that matches the Britain of 2025 more than that of 1939-45, so arrival of Windrush is the story of black RAF servicemen returning to Britain in 1948

The second best Irish phrase I’ve heard, used to describe someone who’s always engaging in one-upmanship, is “if you’ve been to Tenerife, he’s been to Elevenerife.” My number one favourite Irish phrase, and one of the most crushing burns you’ll ever hear, is “he looks like his mammy knitted him.”

I like this piece from @timharford.ft.com but it largely makes the case for ‘blue skies’ type research as it may become useful later. There is a different argument I think we don’t make enough: it is part of the human endeavour to understand the nature of our world www.ft.com/content/0d60...

Can someone help me understand how moving some grants from STFC to EPSRC would solve the issue (given all the funding comes from DSIT)? www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Curiosity-driven research funding at the MRC is reopening with a new approach - including a College of Experts to support cross-disciplinary science www.ukri.org/news/mrc-cur...

That stage of Ramadan where the fast is going fine, but my patience with work emails is… less spiritually elevated

UKRI’s funding reforms: universities and researchers should be valued collaborators, not an afterthought www.bmj.com/content/392/...

New video just dropped from Ian Chapman @ukri.org youtu.be/Z1OcZl224qo

“Declining public trust in institutions suggests that universities cannot take public support for research granted.”

World Book Day tomorrow. The annual reminder that children love books and parents love discovering they need a costume the night before.

This is very very good on the underperformance of the UK graduate premium. It's a demand side problem.* *as people at SPRU have been saying for 40 years.

“What truly defines the international student experience is the courage it takes to leave home, the determination to succeed in a new academic culture, and the trust placed in universities to honour that journey with meaningful support.” www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/w...

Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….

Last week, RPN broke a string of stories on significant changes to funding across a number of research councils (see thread below) This morning, UKRI chief executive is appearing at the Commons science committee, where he is being asked about them by MPs Here are some key moments so far 🧵

Important! AHRC is looking for a new Executive Chair. A critical role for arts and humanities. £160k - £170k. Please share widely to help get the best possible field! fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Amongst other things, this is deeply disingenuous wording. The letter states (as positive framing?) that "curiosity-driven research will be the largest component of UKRI's portfolio over the SR period" Yet the majority of that bucket (61%) is QR funding. This is really conflating two very 1/2

Interesting piece - keen to hear what other research policy folks think.

Happy new year from Manila!

Can't believe no-one got me one of these for Christmas

Very, very good post. I wish it left me more optimistic about the future of UK politics, but alas...

What does your local university do for you? If your local university is the University of Suffolk or the University of Essex, here's (just) one answer to that question. 1/3

If you’re in the UK and were born between 1970-1990 you can just go to your GP and get revaccinated for MMR because you may have had single vaccines, which are no longer considered valid. I went & did it this summer. Easy way to help protect yourself & your community.

📢Today we are launching the search for the new Chair of our Board. This high-profile individual will steer CaSE’s evolution as the UK’s leading independent voice for R&D, at a time of great change and opportunity for the charity.

This should be really good. 3rd Dec.

The levy on foreign students is an export tax. Has anyone in government wondered why countries don't usually impose export taxes?

FYI: The BBC has revealed the charities #TheCelebrityTraitors were all competing for, with links so that you can donate.

This piece from the Weekend FT seems relevant bsky.app/profile/heta...

The TRAC methodology is not providing the detailed insights that could help support better decision-making, says a new report from @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social : www.kcl.ac.uk/news/univers...

What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation? Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

📢 Together with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), we’ve urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to rethink the idea of the proposed international student levy. Read more: loom.ly/VCyzGDg [1/3]

The Python Software Foundation has turned down a $1.5m grant from the National Science Foundation as it came with a restriction that they would not operate any programs (at all - not just funded by the grant) that promote diversity, equality or inclusion… pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...

Asked about the most important roles of universities, their wider national (and international) contributions are the top: training professionals and researching new medicines are main reasons, followed by the benefits they provide to students.

AMRC members 📢 The Aisling Burnand Award 2025 is now open for submissions! Submit your best examples of joint working, to win a trophy, £150 for training or equipment, and £50 worth of food/drink to celebrate your win. Find out more ⬇️ bit.ly/3JlugoT

This is the best article that Caitlin Moran has ever written. @stianwestlake.bsky.social estlake will particularly appreciate it. www.thetimes.com/article/09da...

£10bn over a decade is a huge sum by any standard - half the UK's entire annual public R&D budget...at one (new) institute Oxford uni had a research income of £778.9m in 23/24. Not directly comparable, but shows what scale the Ellison is aiming for

Levy would undermine inflation boost to tuition fees, MPs told Taxing international student fees would “waste” efforts to “stop boiling the frog”, says UUK head www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

Quite a coup for Zurich, a dark sign for America, and perhaps a missed opportunity for the UK.

‘analysis of the [graduate] wage premium… by leading… economists determined it was “extraordinarily flat” between the 1990s & 2010s, despite a near tripling in the share of working adults with an undergraduate degree over the period.’ Good piece from @amyborrett.ft.com on.ft.com/3Kn1ioF

Connecting further and higher education to create a system that delivers for learners and communities🌟 In a new report, UUK & @aoc-info.bsky.social bring together university and college leaders to work towards a more joined-up tertiary education system. 👇 loom.ly/8Sq1_Gw

This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

If you want to win over younger voters, telling them they can't go to university is probably not going to help.

Alongside the @royalsociety.org, @raeng.org.uk, @acmedsci.bsky.social we have opened applications for the latest round of the Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration scheme. Funded by DSIT, the programme supports UK researchers in engaging with Horizon Europe. Learn more: bit.ly/42tplbM

"It also proposes tuition fees be frozen for five years and the share of international undergraduates frozen at 15 per cent as a condition of receiving funding." www.ft.com/content/0173...

Deloitte Australia will partially refund the federal government after admitting it used AI to help produce a $440,000 report riddled with mistakes, including fake academic citations and false quotes colitco.com/deloitte-ref... A reminder of the risks of relying on AI w/out sufficient human oversight