Anyone getting into a staring match with a herring gull is braver than I am.

EU agrees to open Horizon Europe to dual-use and defence www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Curious little story this one. REF Team telling everyone they can't use REF 2029 logo any more. Seems to contradict previous years' guidance, and could make work for people.

Divide and concur — this radical plan from 1920, for "lasting peace" after WW1, proposed uniting central Europe into 24 wedge-shaped cantons which would radiate out from Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/unionization-of-central-europe/

In an interview with Research Europe, Austria's research minister @eviholz.bsky.social warned that some EU politicians want to copy Trump in taking a "chainsaw" to university funding www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Opinion: Switzerland’s status as a leading science nation is already under pressure - cuts could imperil it further, writes Franz Barjak www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

'The University of Reading wants to build Loddon Garden Village on land close to Shinfield and Lower Earley and it is included in Wokingham Borough Council's current housing plans. The application includes about 2,800 homes, along with two primary schools and one secondary school'. 1/2

Free-to-read opinion: Europe must "couple excellent science with rapid learning cycles", writes @aau.dk rector Per Michael Johansen www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Some pragmatic home truths we need to think with if these aspirations are to be met. Setting PCE criteria very late in the day (December 25/January26) means that HEIs will be retrofitting data to them in their submissions. They will drive positive change only if HEIs believe they will endure. 1/2

She'd only been in post since January.

Rosalind Gill assesses the significance of the latest funding settlement for research and development. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Good list: number 4 will make you say, hmm, we'll see.

Forget it, Jake. It's half term.

How to realise the UK’s ambitions on global talent. Increased visa numbers need to come with wider eligibility and lower costs, says John Kiely. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

I just got an Ai generated invite from @springernature.com to submit an Elton Review, the most prestigious paper category in Biological Invasions. These papers are invitation only…by a human. Inviting submissions based on algorithms is gonna make so much more work for those of us editorial board.

After years of research, scientist Leonid Pshenichnov concluded Russia + China cannot continue fishing krill, the main food source of many marine creatures, at current rates without risking breakdown of entire ocean ecosystems. Russia had him arrested: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Just up on @resprofnews.bsky.social: The @hiddenref.bsky.social festival revealed the momentum, appetite and ability in universities to move beyond a REF that's 96%publications, says @simonhettrick.bsky.social www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Opinion: The European Commission’s ambitions on research infrastructures have complex implications, write Katharina Cramer and Nicolas Rüffin www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

"The implications of opening Horizon Europe to dual-use and military research are wide and deep. Researchers and their institutions need cast-iron assurances...it will remain a civilian research programme," says Jan Palmowski of @guildeu.bsky.social. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

£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

Just up on @resprofnews.bsky.social: analysis of the post-16 white paper from @andywestwood.bsky.social "Overall, the document says much more about R&D than many would have expected from a DfE-led white paper" www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

The director of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences and I interviewed one of the most restless and original talents in science last week⏤theoretical physicist and innovator Stephen Wolfram! Watch out for the rapidfire round! www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SD9...

Andrew Jones sets out ideas for using the pause to REF 2029. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

A helpful reminder from @karenstroobants.bsky.social and Frances Downey of why improving research culture is needed and the work that PCE plans are building on www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Very good on the importance of talent. People are the academic output that UK productivity needs - Research Professional News www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

See also @mikethelwall.bsky.social writing about his work in @resprofnews.bsky.social last year: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

A candid and transparent postmortem of two technical incidents we've had on Knowledge Commons recently, brightened up at the end with a summary of the good work we're doing in moving development forward. about.hcommons.org/2025/10/14/d...

Looking forward to the @rorinstitute.bsky.social evaluation of this mode of funding allocation.

“These findings follow previous research which concluded that the more people learn about how AI works, the less they trust it. The opposite was also true — AI’s biggest fanboys tended to be those who understood the least about the tech.”

I will not take the bait.... I will not take the bait....

Our periodic review of the coverage of the major bibliographic databases (October 2025) GS no longer the largest due to the huge increase of OpenAlex. New data for Xueshu

The other day a student asked me about the prevalence of insider trading in prediction markets. I now have an answer.

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today. Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

ew

Hang on, maybe there are some.

Can the Conservatives say the same? Seems unlikely.

This is going to be great. Already over 300 people registered for tonight, but if you fancy joining us you can still book last minute

Probably for her, too

The Cabinet reshuffle has clarified Britain’s ambiguous relationship with American Big Tech, I argue here in Renewal.

Excellent address by the Uni of Liverpool's Natalie Wallis at #HiddenREF festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social). Report to follow. In the meantime, here's something Wallis wrote for @resprofnews.bsky.social recently on non-traditional research outputs: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Experts say there are fewer than 10,000 African penguin breeding pairs. A century ago there were 1 million. 🐧 No-fishing zones provide some renewed hope for their survival. Read more from @theguardian.com :

Scholarly digital infrastructure is more exciting than you thought.

Really cool story - bird species from across the world make the same sound to warn against cuckoos, and they can even understand each other. Feeds into ideas Darwin had about the origin of language! www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

It's a fine line between critique and advert.

Excellent analysis of the dilemmas presented to the IPCC by AI! The question of whether there should be an IPCC chatbot is crucial. Given close control over communication products in the past, an “official” chatbot would signal a v different attitude to risk.

Start by NOT standing down their REF team at the end of each assessment cycle. Current practice reduces analysis of abundant data that REF generates & leads to the loss of granular knowledge about what worked/didn't work when the next cycle gears up. Also increases the miasma of REF misinformation.

NEW: Something remarkable happened recently and hardly anyone noticed – GB electricity demand was 100% covered by clean power We took a look at the data and this has happened for a record 87 hours in 2025 to date, twice as often as ever before 🧵 www.carbonbrief.org/... 1/7

Good to see Tate Modern bringing back late Friday and Saturday opening (to 9 pm).

One motivation for preprinting I've heard from scientists is that journal editors increasingly expect to read the comments on preprints before sending them out for review, which is an interesting motivation but seems to cement the importance of journals rather than work against them (as many hope).

New in whimsical Latin binomials.