Go meta! How metascience is transforming research policy, funding and evaluation
Since 2000, global investment in R&D has accelerated to over USD 2.5 trillion a year. This has been accompanied by heightened aspirations and sharper accountabilities.
And it has spurred an expansion of metascience. Its simple premise – that we should turn the methods of science towards analysing and improving the scientific system itself – is now becoming mainstream.
These agendas aren’t new: metascience builds on a rich history of research into R&D systems. But there is also a growing cadre of researchers—in universities, R&D-intensive firms, public funding agencies, private labs and foundations—deploying new tools and data-driven methodologies to investigate the scientific process. Several countries have launched initiatives for metascience, such as:
- The UK, where the government has established an in-house Metascience Unit.
- Canada, which has launched a new cross-agency funding call.
- Germany, where the Volkswagen Foundation has a programme for “Researching Research”.
- USA, where the NSF is running its “Science of Science” funding program and experimenting with new methods.
In this talk, James Wilsdon will explore the changing landscape for metascience. He will argue that metascience is less a discipline, and more a mode of engaging with questions that most researchers encounter at some point in the networks and institutions they inhabit. Finally, he will offer a few thoughts on the metascientific possibilities of the present moment for the Austrian research system.
Zur Person
James Wilsdon
James Wilsdon is a transdisciplinary metascientist who works on the governance of science and research. In 2023, James joined UCL as Professor of Research Policy, from where he directs the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), which he co-founded in 2019 with a mission to accelerate transformative research on research systems, cultures and decision-making.Since the late-1990s, James has worked at the heart of research policy in the UK, Europe and internationally. In addition to posts at the universities of Sheffield, Sussex and Lancaster, he has worked in think tanks and as director of science policy for the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. In 2014-15, James chaired an independent review of research metrics, published as The Metric Tide. James co-founded the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA) and from 2014-21, served as its Vice-Chair. He is a Fellow of the International Science Council and UK Academy of Social Sciences.