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Scientific researchers urged to ‘reach beyond own circles’ after polling shows their views skew more to the left

Science and Technology Facilities Council chair Michelle Dougherty confirms ‘top-up’ funding will enable more postdoc recruitment than anticipated

The former education secretary’s throwaway line arguably fired the starting gun for a new era in which scholarly expertise could be dismissed and social media sages exalted. Ten years after the notorious putdown, Patrick Jack caught up with Michael Gove and his critics on the legitimacy and legacy of his infamous barb

Pretending research environments could be measured by metrics or policies ignored how scholarship actually relies on peer-to-peer relations unique to academic cultures, say Martin Holbraad, Dan Nightingale and Aeron O’Connor

Lacking profile or career reward, higher doctorates are being mothballed by UK universities. That is a pity for a credential that helps scholars build on the research potential of their PhD, says Andrew Shenton

Teacher-turned-sleuth Stephen Vainker warns rise of chatbot language in journals will further erode school confidence in education faculties

Appointment of philosopher who has refused to recognise viewpoint as legitimate could have ‘chilling effect’ on types of studies submitted to the exercise that distributes £2 billion in funding, says professor

The UK needs a national strategy involving funders, universities, libraries, publishers and scholarly communities, says Lindsay Farmer

Poll ahead of May’s Holyrood and Senedd election finds ‘broad but shallow’ support for investing in research

Research groups told funding for early career posts will fall by two-thirds despite reassurances that postdocs will not bear brunt of cuts

Even if delayed grants arrive soon, it is too late to hire postdocs this year, and wider budget cuts will cut the supply of tech skills, says Malcolm Fairbairn

UK science minister says missed deadline for postdoctoral grants was ‘mistake’ unrelated to funding shake-up as he defends reform agenda

Science committee chair describes ‘widespread cuts’ to strategically important research as ‘failure’ of leadership

Positive impact of channelling government funding into charity at expense of universities has yet to be proven, argues learned society

National Audit Office review highlights growing maintenance backlog as funders invest in building new laboratories

Universities and charities should provide at least 26 weeks’ full stipend under new charter to support female researchers, says science secretary Liz Kendall

Cancer diagnostics researcher Dina Haddad mixed ballet and pole dancing for science-inspired pop video

Breakdown in relationship between universities and ministers has made planning for the future even more difficult, according to former Research England chair

With supercomputing and other AI-related spending prioritised, Research England has told institutions to focus on maintaining existing facilities instead of building new ones

Proportion of doctoral graduates remaining in UK academia has fallen substantially as more enter industry or move abroad, according to a major longitudinal survey

Academics urge government to strengthen legal protections for scholars undertaking studies in controversial fields

Science minister says way physics funding cuts were communicated was ‘pretty gruesome’ but insists most budgets will increase

Long-running atmospheric measurement aircraft no longer offers value for money in light of rising costs, says environmental research funder

Academics’ concerns are mounting as news drips out of the research councils about cuts and freezes ahead of a major funding restructuring intended to promote interdisciplinarity and transparency. But does the buckets approach even hold water? Jack Grove reports

Interdisciplinary research hub focused on arts and humanities will shut in July amid financial sustainability issues

More focused approach to research funding difficult to achieve without richer, more integrated data, argue impact specialists

The fact that a mere few months’ hiatus imperils the futures of those without permanent posts underlines the fragility of UK biomedicine, says a researcher

Authors must put aside personal pride and seek retractions when their literature proves unreliable, says sleuth

Failure to use biological sex as ‘basic variable’ will make research ‘weaker and less reliable’, says City St George’s head Anthony Finkelstein

Three years after the launch of the UK’s big-money agency for ‘high-risk, high-reward research’, political expectations around the impact of public science funding are higher than ever. As UKRI funding streams are curtailed and redirected, how can Aria prove its worth, asks Jack Grove

National funder commits to another above-inflation increase of almost 5 per cent

York and Swansea latest to decline publisher’s offer, with latter also walking away from Springer Nature deal

Ian Chapman tells MPs that some funding streams will be back online ‘in weeks’ amid uncertainty over impact of research changes

Blaming institutional equity demands for the lack of university spin-out success is misguided, says UKRI review

Response to Sullivan Review argues recommendations could hit quality of findings and impinge on academic freedom

Further funding cuts will be announced in coming months after STFC savings and research council funding pauses, warns Ian Chapman 

‘Lack of alternatives’ blamed as majority of researchers admit they rely on journal prestige metrics to make decisions on grants and hiring

Temporary block on grant applications by MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC heightens concerns over funding cuts

Reduction in funding by Science and Technology Facilities Council would be ‘most drastic’ cut to curiosity-driven science ‘in a generation’ warn scientific leaders

Scholars criticise lack of progress on restoring repository of 600,000 PhD theses more than two years after it was felled by cyberattack

Sheffield, Lancaster and Surrey confirm they are walking away from proposed three-year deal with world’s largest academic publisher

Early enthusiasm for compulsory datasets has given way to ‘more qualified views’ on compliance, finds long-running survey

Labour’s push for more research specialisation fits south coast institution’s growing focus on pensioner health, say professors

Complaints over ‘price increases’ and open access models spur UK institutions to walk away from offer from publishing giant, despite nationally negotiated agreement

Director of Institute of Development Studies discusses stepping into the role after 25 years, impact of USAID cuts and benefits of Sussex collaboration

Government renews drive to attract international academics with more recruits coming to UK under Global Talent Fund

More people sceptical that science makes life better compared with pre-pandemic, and public also doubting contribution to economic growth

Syrian scholar stopped from seeing dying father among those affected by long waits for clearance, says MP Wendy Chamberlain

Doctoral candidates offered hybrid ‘stipend and salary’ studentships with significant teaching hours will struggle to balance competing pressures, union fears

Dramatically increasing private spending on research may be unrealistic given current economic conditions, funder warned

New technologies must be used in ways that ‘strengthen, rather than replace, human expertise’, report authors warn

Failure to stop intimidation from trans right activists during visiting lecture breached free speech rights, says sociologist Alice Sullivan

New targeted model will see funder split budget across four “buckets”, with money for curiosity-driven work remaining broadly flat

Collaboration between British and Chinese scholars has increased over the past decade in the wake of the UK’s departure from the European Union

Decision to row back reforms demonstrates difficulties of using process to engineer social change, critics say, with little clarity over how newly revised ‘people’ section will work

Without exemptions for commercial as well as academic data mining, the government’s AI for Science Strategy will fall flat, says Benjamin White

Several planned reforms to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework scrapped or partially rolled back after three-month pause, bringing exercise closer to 2021 audit

Tech reskilling and digital democracy plans no distraction from furthering government’s research ambitions, says science secretary

While new technologies seen as ‘game changer’ for national-level research assessment, study finds vehement opposition, particularly among humanities scholars

Undergraduates are choosing silence over dissent given the high price paid by scholars advancing controversial ideas, says Yashraj Garg