Users welcomed Science Works' launch as a UK policy studio to accelerate science and tech, praising the initiative and wishing it success.
If that sounds appealing to you and you want to get involved, please visit us at http://science.works and give us a follow at @sci_works -- we'd love to hear from you.
And while we do all of this, we must ensure that we can weave a narrative that resonates with the public and builds confidence, legitimacy and excitement about the awesome power of research. That feels ever more critical as we get deeper into this decade.
Today, our ingenuity is straining at the limits of a system built for another age. AI is poised to upend research. Institutions in all parts of public life are under attack. This is a moment where the UK could easily let our lead slip.
OR - if we found our confidence, were able to make the important reforms we need to, and rekindle that spark of imagination, creativity and - perhaps - British eccentricity and weirdness, we could make a giant decadal leap forwards.
Certainly, we need a serious focus on AI. Machine intelligence could automate away much of the drudgery of research, but could also compound existing dysfunctions - just as we are already seeing with grantwriting and peer review.
Part of that is about making our whole system more dynamic - whether it's seeding new institutions, or making the 'research economy' work better for scientists, funders, and businesses.
As AI takes hold, we need to ensure that our research ecosystem is truly digital. At the moment, software tooling for science is a poor relation. Software needs to be a first-class output if we are to accelerate scientific discovery.
We also need to dig deeper into the evidence base - and generate new evidence - so that decisions about what to invest in, who to back, where to grow capability or retreat from dead ends are made with greater insight and greater purpose. Metascience is key.
@ersatzben @Lyan82 Excellent – good luck. Great to see this!
@sci_works PS - huge thanks to @frances_jones00 at @ResProfNews for this great writeup: https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-politics-2026-6-organisation-bringing-evidence-to-uk-research-policy-launches/