Opportunity status:
Upcoming
Funders:
, , , , , ,
Co-funders:
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£6,000,000
Maximum award:
£350,000
Publication date:
25 November 2025
Opening date:
12 February 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
23 April 2026 4:00pm UK time
Apply for funding to undertake cutting-edge Metascience research into more effective ways of conducting and supporting research and development (R&D), including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), how to optimise research institutions and the challenges of measuring research excellence.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding, however, collaborations with international researchers are strongly encouraged.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £250,000 or £350,000 with an international partner. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC.
This is a pre-announcement and the information may change. The funding opportunity will open on 12 February 2026.
Who can apply
This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility, and organisations who are based overseas. .
Who is eligible to apply
This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. We:
encourage collaborative research with other UK and international organisations
encourage applications from diverse groups of researchers
welcome applications from those who have not previously held Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) grants
welcome applications from individuals at any career stage, subject to ESRC eligibility criteria
Who is not eligible to apply
Project leads from non-UK organisations are not eligible to apply for funding for this opportunity.
Project co-leads based in non-UK research organisations can be included in research grant applications.
What we're looking for
Aim
This funding opportunity aims to accelerate the generation of evidence on how we can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and inclusivity of the research and development (R&D) ecosystem. For this round, we are interested in how the adoption of AI is changing the research landscape , how to optimally design and lead research institutions; and how to measure and understand scientific progress at scale.
Scope
Metascience, a rapidly expanding research field, draws on a wide range of disciplinary expertise to understand how research is conducted, funded and supported. It also provides evidence for how these practices can be enhanced or improved. For a deeper understanding of what metascience means to UKRI, please see the UK Metascience Unit’s report: .
The Metascience Research Grants Programme, a collaboration between UKRI and Coefficient Giving, supports innovative and ambitious metascience research projects. These projects use scientific methods to deepen our understanding of how different incentives, institutional structures, and funding practices within the R&D system influence scientific research outputs and career outcomes.
This funding opportunity will support empirical and/or theoretical research that is focused on generating actionable insights for decision makers, including those in government, funding bodies, and research organisations.
In this funding opportunity, we are focussing on three themes to build our metascience portfolio. Applications should fit under one of the following themes.
Science of AI for Science:
How the adoption of AI is changing the research landscape, how this helps and/or hinders scientific progress, and how governments, industry and funding organisations should respond.
Effective design and leadership of research organisations
This includes empirical comparison of institutional models, the drivers of programme manager and research performance, the application of evidence from management and behavioural science to improve organisational structures and practices in research environments, and the effectiveness of interventions to support inclusive, high-performing research cultures.
Scientometric approaches to understanding research excellence, efficiency, and equity
This includes the development, validation, and generalisable use of metrics and indicators to assess research quality, influence, and impact, the development or application of indicators to advance the curation and synthesis of science at scale, and the behavioural consequences of metric use in research evaluation and funding decisions.
We will not fund applications that do not fit under one of these three themes. In your application, you should clearly state the theme your proposal fits within, alongside providing a clear justification.
The funders strongly welcome projects involving collaborations between researchers and organisations (for example research funders, research organisations, charities, think-tanks, and journals) interested in implementing findings or approaches from the proposed research in their practices.
Science of AI for Science
As an emerging area, it is our experience from other funding opportunities that AI for science requires further guidance to ensure common understanding.
We define AI broadly as ‘software which learns by example’, including generative AI and machine learning, and applications of these in hardware, for instance, self-driving laboratories. We define ‘AI for science’ as the application of AI in scientific research itself (including social science) and in activities undertaken within a research ecosystem, for instance, peer review or research portfolio evaluation.
This funding opportunity aims to fund projects that contribute to the embryonic ‘science of AI for science’, or ‘AI metascience’. These are projects that will generate broad understanding and evaluations of the use of AI and its impacts that is relevant across multiple scientific fields and contexts.
We will reject projects focussed primarily on the application of AI in industrial settings like clinical medicine, law or fintech. We will also reject proposals focussed on conducting frontier computer science research (i.e. the ‘science of AI’, as opposed to ‘AI metascience’), or on general AI ethics, security, safety and society-related topics.
This is not because these are not important, but because they are covered much more substantially in other programmes funded by UKRI.
Duration
The duration of this award is between six months and 24 months.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be up to £250,000 if all organisations are UK-based and eligible for funding. The FEC of your project can be up to £350,000 if you have an international partner.
UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC.
How to apply
We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens.
Contact details
For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.
For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact
For further information on submitting an application read .
Additional info
Background
Investing in research, development, and innovation is vital to UK and international economic growth and prosperity. However, it is not just the quantity of that investment that matters but also the quality. How research is funded and practiced is critical to accelerating scientific breakthroughs and innovations, nurturing talent, and shaping research culture.
In November 2023, the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) announced a metascience programme in the . The programme is being delivered by a joint DSIT-UKRI initiative; the UK Metascience Unit.
The UK Metascience Unit recently published their first major report: .
This funding opportunity is part of a range of activities delivered by the unit to generate evidence on more effective approaches to delivering and supporting research and development (R&D). These include a range of methods, such as randomised evaluations, natural experiments and data science.
This funding opportunity is delivered in partnership with Coefficient Giving. Coefficient Giving is a philanthropic funder which aims to use its resources to help others as effectively as it can. The organisation makes grants across a number of areas, including research on economic growth and scientific innovation.
Research and innovation impact
Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations and the wider global population.
Research disruption due to COVID-19
We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:
breaks and delays
disruptive working patterns and conditions
the loss of ongoing work
role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic
Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.
Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.
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