#ukri
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hpsvanessa.bsky.social
This is UKRI policy
www.ukri.org/news/ukri-mo...
September 25, 2026 at 8:01 AM
kirstygrainger.bsky.social
Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab.

www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M.

An extra £20M.

Just found.

That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank.

www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...
July 27, 2026 at 5:52 PM
hiranotakashi.bsky.social
これ！
bsky.app/profile/ukri...
ukrinformjp.bsky.social ウクルインフォルム日本語版 @ukrinformjp.bsky.social · Feb 25
ゼレンシキー宇大統領、ウクライナへの政治・人道支援等で外国の活動家らに勲章授与　日本人記者も www.ukrinform.jp/rubric-polyt...
ゼレンシキー宇大統領、ウクライナへの政治・人道支援等で外国の活動家らに勲章授与　日本人記者も
ウクライナのゼレンシキー大統領は２５日、全面侵攻下におけるウクライナへの多大な政治的及び人道的支援に対し、外国の首脳、政府高官、ボランティア、慈善家、ジャーナリスト及び社会活動家らに国家勲章を授与する大統領令に署名した。その中には、日本人の平野高志ウクルインフォルム日本語版編集者も含まれている。 — ウクルインフォルム.
www.ukrinform.jp
February 25, 2026 at 8:55 PM
davehitchcock.bsky.social
UKRI is using AI to "screen" grant applications?

That is beyond awful and we are so very screwed.
jpsastro.bsky.social John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 4d
Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky
I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
September 24, 2026 at 7:54 PM
andrealaybourn.bsky.social
Thrilled to announce that from 13th January, I will be joining the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow & Associate Prof of Sustainable Materials Manufacture. Recruitment adverts coming soon! #ukriflf #UKRI
January 2, 2025 at 1:14 PM
jpsastro.bsky.social
Apologies, turned off replies and quote posts now as my notifications are through the roof and I think my first post implies that this is directly UKRI, when it is really devolved funding that UKRI gave to others to dish out. Glad to see others finding this worrying if it's the start of a trend.
September 25, 2026 at 9:59 AM
hiranotakashi.bsky.social
訳した
bsky.app/profile/ukri...
June 4, 2026 at 8:43 PM
anacweeks.bsky.social
I’m so happy to share that I’ve been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship at @uniofbath.bsky.social to study how the mental load—the invisible work of anticipating, planning and organizing family life—shapes parents’ political participation. 🤯

www.bath.ac.uk/announcement...
Two University of Bath researchers awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships
They will investigate how the hidden mental load of domestic life shapes political participation and how online behaviour can contribute to violent extremism.
www.bath.ac.uk
September 25, 2026 at 10:18 AM
jpsastro.bsky.social
Yeh I’ve asked UKRI about this today. Although I suspect this is the direction of travel
September 24, 2026 at 8:28 PM
downham.bsky.social
There are no words for how much this disgusts me #research #humanities #ukri
jpsastro.bsky.social John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 4d
Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky
I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
September 24, 2026 at 10:15 PM
jdportes.bsky.social
Update: there is now an open letter to UKRI here, calling on them to reject this attack on academic freedom and political interference in the decision-making and governance of UKRI. I would invite academic colleagues to sign and share

docs.google.com/document/d/e...
October 29, 2023 at 10:13 PM
tukohbin.bsky.social
Does UKRI know the people running it are doing this ? They have said they wanted to do something like this

www.ukri.org/news/ukri-mo...
UKRI modernises grant assessment for the age of AI
UKRI is updating its grant assessment approach to speed up grant decisions, respond to generative AI and ensure we continue backing the best talent and ideas.
www.ukri.org
September 24, 2026 at 7:44 PM
drkatedevlin.bsky.social
Eh, what now? This is awful. This is unacceptable and goes against UKRI policy, which clearly states: "Assessors...must not use generative AI tools as part of their assessment activities except for language refinement purposes".
jpsastro.bsky.social John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 4d
Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky
I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
September 25, 2026 at 8:08 AM
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
The questions are 'which AI tools' and 'used how'?

Presumably UKRI is using (say) CoPilot, secured to UKRI, not feeding applications into commercial training models without applicants' knowledge or consent.

And presumably (never presume) the pilots are built with past UKRI EDI failures in mind.
resprofnews.bsky.social Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 12d
Turn to AI in research grant assessment ‘is inevitable’.

UKRI becomes first mover to explore automation for processing applications, as other British funders hesitate.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
September 16, 2026 at 6:58 AM
willpooley.bsky.social
all academic applications should have consolation prizes.

doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020”
or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”
December 2, 2025 at 8:33 AM
hpsvanessa.bsky.social
BA > UKRI
September 26, 2026 at 7:55 AM
jpsastro.bsky.social
Article about AI triage of grant applications, now with response from UKRI included (as I say this was devolved UKRI funding so they were not responsible for the AI triage) 🧪 #academicsky www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
AI ‘could filter out weaker grant proposals’, study suggests - Research Professional News
Preprint analysing automated scoring of applications for UKRI funding comes amid reports of AI-based rejections
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
September 26, 2026 at 10:10 AM
kirstygrainger.bsky.social
This is AMAZING news for thousands of doctor students. An 8% increase in stipend from October.

And other great changes to T&C's.

Kudos to the UKRI teams involved.

www.ukri.org/news/ukri-is...
UKRI is increasing PhD stipends and improving student support
UKRI is increasing the minimum stipend we pay PhD students by 8% to £20,780 from 1 October 2025 and updating our doctoral training grant terms and conditions.
www.ukri.org
January 30, 2025 at 12:33 PM
robinbisson.bsky.social
Update on the "AI-based triage" which is getting lots of (negative) attention
In recent days, there have also been several reports on social media of applicants seemingly being rejected after “AI-based triage”. The funding, while originating from UKRI, was devolved to the Crane network, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to strengthen the UK’s cybersecurity research ecosystem. UKRI confirmed it did not carry out the AI triage process. A spokesperson said: “UKRI policy does not allow the use of generative AI to conduct application assessment. We are following up with the Crane network to review this situation in detail and ensure compliance with our assessment conditions.”
September 25, 2026 at 4:16 PM
lottelydia.bsky.social
while the British Academy is using partial randomisation on its small grants -- and awarding more women/and POC researchers than ever before -- UKRI is feeding your painstakingly-developed proposal into an AI. But it's okay because they then get *two* AIs to debate whether you get the money.
jpsastro.bsky.social John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 4d
Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky
I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
September 24, 2026 at 10:04 PM
noodling.bsky.social
Someone will be collecting proposals and their UKRI evaluations train their own ML model to estimate UKRI scores on novel proposals! It's an arms race.
September 25, 2026 at 9:23 AM
k2mey.eurosky.social
UKRI using AI to triage grant proposals is deeply, deeply insulting. What an enormous lack of respect for the huge amount of work that goes into writing a grant
September 24, 2026 at 5:27 PM
anavaldi.bsky.social
Given that people is asking me for the numbers, here the table provided by UKRI:
October 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
jfwinters.bsky.social
UKRI is already trialling AI-assisted assessment www.ukri.org/news/ukri-mo...
UKRI modernises grant assessment for the age of AI
UKRI is updating its grant assessment approach to speed up grant decisions, respond to generative AI and ensure we continue backing the best talent and ideas.
www.ukri.org
September 24, 2026 at 8:00 PM
jpsastro.bsky.social
I should be clear this was devolved funding so UKRI funded a group of academics to set up a grant who then chose this method for review. Still reflects on UKRI though.
September 25, 2026 at 7:57 AM