The art of the impact case study Ten observations from real evaluation practice

LATEST on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social Substack: Marta Wróblewska offer 10 practical suggestions on how to write an impactful impact case study: open.substack.com/pub/research...

Great to be in sunny Leusden, NL at the International School for Philosophy (ISVW) for the 2026 RoRI Research Retreat.

And here’s (most of!) RoRI’s research and operational team — huge thanks to them all for everything they’ve contributed over the past year. @rorinstitute.bsky.social @cwts.nl

Great day in Den Haag with RoRI partners NWO and ZonMw diving into funder experiments, impact pathways, and global metascience movements. International partnerships like this are essential for strengthening the evidence base and networks needed to improve how research is funded and practiced.

Writing a great Impact Case Study can take as much time as writing a research paper.

In today's post, Marta Natalia Wróblewska PhD shares ten practical observations from her experience as "Impact Ninja": researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/the-art-of...

Competitive research funding is at breaking point - Research Professional News Institutions and teams, not ‘superstar’ academics, must be heart of the system, says Peter Kolarz

Institutions and teams, not ‘superstar’ academics, must be the heart of the research funding system. RoRI's Peter Kolarz argues that the competitive funding model is at a breaking point and requires an urgent shift toward systemic reforms: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

We’ve added two new countries to RoRI’s Atlas of Assessment: Estonia 🇪🇪 and Sweden 🇸🇪.

The Atlas provides an overview of how research is assessed around the world to help policymakers & researchers compare national approaches: researchonresearch.org/atlas/

Reducing waste in the competition for research grants A call to cull

Provocative NEW POST on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social Substack: @cash4questions.bsky.social asks how universities and funders might 'cull' uncompetitive research grant applications to relieve unsustainable pressures on the system. researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/reducing-w...

What if we prevented the least competitive 20% of grant applications from being submitted? Adam Golberg (Strategic Research Development Manager at the University of Nottingham) argues this could ease pressure across the funding system: researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/reducing-w...

The time has come for big changes to research funding. New piece by RoRI’s Peter Kolarz on why incremental fixes may no longer be enough: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Image shows the title of the article, "The time has come for big changes to improve research funding", and the author, Peter Kolarz.

The competitive #researchfunding system is at breaking point. In our new Perspective, Peter Kolarz from @rorinstitute.bsky.social argues for whole system transformation, as innovations to address ongoing problems will not suffice.
🧪 #AcademicSky
plos.io/4mjCi0g

New FWF Open API: Transparent funding data freely available With the FWF Open API, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) provides structured, open funding data on projects and their outputs. The interface supports analyses and offers automated access to project and ...

Our partners @fwf-at.bsky.social have launched a new Open API, providing open, machine-readable access to data on FWF-funded projects and outputs: www.fwf.ac.at/en/news/deta...

Good investments in the prestige economy A new analysis shows how the “credibility revolution” in microeconomics led to a redistribution of kudos

NEW on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social Substack: @tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy muses on an exploration of the curious interaction between theory testability and the distribution of scholarly prestige. open.substack.com/pub/research...

Good investments in the prestige economy A new analysis shows how the “credibility revolution” in microeconomics led to a redistribution of kudos

Academic research doesn’t just run on funding and ideas; it also runs on prestige.

RoRI's @tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy on new research by Kurtis Hingl on how the “credibility revolution” in economics reshaped prestige economy: researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/good-inves...

Equity in science: A beautiful lie? When partnerships aren’t neutral

Equity in science isn’t just about good intentions; it’s about the systems that reward, recognise, and reinforce certain actors over others.

Similo Ngwenya discusses why Global North–South research partnerships alone can’t fix systemic inequities in science: open.substack.com/pub/research...

💸 India spends as much on journal subscriptions as on funding an entire national research agency.

Moumita Koley and Chandan G.​​Nagarajappa write about India's massive subscription scheme - and why its impact may not match the cost: open.substack.com/pub/research...

AI reviewed a psychology paper published after human peer review. It was far more rigorous, repeatedly flagging a key unresolved assumption.

What happens if AI peer review does its job too well? researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/no-paper-i...

The point of no return? Diagnosing wasted effort in research funding is harder than it looks

NEW POST from @tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social substack taking a closer look at the point of no return in research funding processes. open.substack.com/pub/research...

We're launching a new Research on Research seminar series for early career researchers!

A space to share your work, brainstorm in-progress projects, or explore fresh ideas for advancing metascience.

Stay updated or register to present: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

We are delighted to join RoRI as Core Partners.

We share the view that responsive, impactful, and fair research is essential to tackling the unprecedented global challenges of our time. SHAPE research drives economic growth, improves wellbeing, and enhances understanding of people and societies.

In our latest Substack, RoRI's @tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy takes on the question: is there a point where the effort spent applying for and reviewing grants outweighs the value of the funding itself?

Read the piece here: researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/the-point-...

RoRI welcomes ZonMw and the British Academy as Core Partners - Research on Research We are pleased to announce two new Core Partners: ZonMw, the Dutch Organisation for knowledge and innovation in health, healthcare […]

We are pleased to announce two new Core Partners: ZonMw, the Dutch Organisation for knowledge and innovation in health and well-being, and @britishacademy.bsky.social, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences: researchonresearch.org/rori-welcome...

Looking forward to lots of lively metascience discussion on the new @rorinstitute.bsky.social substack. Read my inaugural post to find out what we’re up to.

RoRI is now on Substack! With Go Meta!, we’re joining the growing metascience conversation with essays, reflections & provocations on how research is funded and evaluated. Our first post, by @scurry.bsky.social, reflects on his journey into metascience: open.substack.com/pub/research...

We’ve started work on a new project: PATHWAYS – Advancing Research on Research use to enhance positive impact 🧩

Funders want research to make a difference, but how exactly does research travel from publication to use to impact? Read more: researchonresearch.org/project/path...

📢 New RoRI Working Paper: Does targeted research funding reshape research landscapes?

New RoRI evidence from Norway and Switzerland suggests shifts in research topics are gradual - and similar under both targeted and non-targeted funding: researchonresearch.org/does-targete...

RoRI’s Seunghyun Lee and @jameswilsdon.bsky.social joined discussions at the OECD Global Science Forum in Paris on rethinking research assessment & incentives.

Assessment reform is moving to the centre of research policy debates; read the full write-up here: researchonresearch.org/rethinking-r...

We’re co-organising a Eu-SPRI Forum 2026 track on how research funding instruments support science and innovation policy: their rationales, design and effects.

See full details here: euspri2026.webs.upv.es/index.php/ca...

Submission deadline: 16 February 2026

The ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council is doubling down on distributed peer review (DPR).

In new applicant-led pilots launching in 2026, ESRC will use DPR for its new Connect scheme, building on earlier UKRI pilots that “worked really well”: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

MetaROR’s approach to Crossref DOI registration

Innovation in scientific publishing and its implications for Crossref DOI registration practices - MetaROR’s approach

doi.org/10.64000/vfe...

Together with @andre-brasil.bsky.social I just published this blog post about @crossref.bsky.social DOI registration practices for @metaror.bsky.social.

New country added to the Atlas of Assessment: Slovakia 🇸🇰: researchonresearch.org/observatory/...

RoRI's Atlas of Assessment brings together curated, quality-assured information on how research is assessed and funded across countries.