MetaMinds Dissecting Our AI Reality

The UK Metascience Unit Cohort Event 2026, held at the Wellcome Collection in London from 8–10 July, brought together researchers, policymakers, funders and practitioners to explore how evidence can improve the research system itself. Organised by RAND Europe, the event was designed as a collaborative forum for knowledge exchange, interdisciplinary networking and policy engagement.

Across the first two days, discussions centred on some of the most pressing questions facing modern research: research integrity, assessment and funding, researcher culture, the growing role of artificial intelligence, and the challenge of ensuring that evidence meaningfully informs research policy.

One of the event’s defining strengths was its highly participatory format. Poster sessions, networking activities and workshops encouraged conversations across disciplines. Structured challenge sessions invited participants to tackle real policy questions ranging from AI and research integrity to the future of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and sustainability of the UK research and innovation system. The discussions focused on identifying evidence gaps and opportunities for collaborative research, not just theoretically, but by finding those collaborators in the moments, in the rooms, in the sessions.

Keynotes

We heard keynote conversations featuring leaders from both established and emerging organisations that ended up challenging the very notion of what it means to be a researcher and the scientific practice, itself.

Daniel L. Goroff was possibly the most valuable keynote of the event (in my opinion). He came with a wealth of experience working at the highest levels of US government through numerous leadership and policy changes. Daniel did not waste time with niceties or platitudes, and he didn’t wash the future in a utopian vision of what has been and what could be. He reminded us that good science has always been under threat, and no less than today. No discipline is immune to attacks from tyrannical, fascist leadership. Our collective history shows this loud and clear, and our present is a unmistakable reminder. Daniel’s message, Do not be so naive as to assume what you have now will be there in the future.

Good science needs courageous minds!

Anastasia Gamick was a polar opposite. Former DARPA leadership turned-tech-mogul, she brought her background with Musk’s Neurlink and now CEO of ARIA in the UK. ARIA is a public/private funded firm who sees the future of science as a privatized industry, and are working to make this a reality through visions of Contract Research Organizations (CRO), Focused Research Organizations (FRO), and framing every talking point with a “fundamental capability”. ARIA is currently funded by UK taxes and private donors to the tune of billions (both current and projected). Anastasia painted a picture where scientific research funding begins and ends with the desires of an executive board who set the pace for discovery and quality of deliverables; where failure to meet expectations is met with funding withdrawal at any time, without recourse. She described a future where scientific targets are about marketability and innovation has a expected price tag.

What does science look like when it’s privatized?

Unconference

The final day adopted an unconference model, allowing us, the attendees, to shape the agenda around themes we wanted to target. Conversations ranged from how metascience should engage with higher education institutions to the implications of increasingly capable AI systems for scientific publishing, and most alarming, the current and plausible future political deletion of scientific research, science-backed knowledge and science communication from our public lives. The debate I found most striking was whether scientists and researchers should keep fighting against political destruction, or keep our heads down, stay quiet, and just try to get on with things.

This participant-led approach reflected the central philosophy of the event: that strengthening research requires open dialogue, experimentation, discourse and contributions from across the research system.

As the event drew to a close, concepts were crystalized: Metascience is about actively shaping a more robust, equitable, and innovative research system. The UK Metascience Unit continues to play a pivotal role in this mission, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to turn evidence into impact.