Metascience Sandpit: Scientometrics for Research Assessment

Funding to support up to projects arising from an interactive sandpit that develop, validate, and critique novel scientometric indicators for use in research assessment and in metascience research.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is inviting applicants to attend an interactive sandpit to co-develop research projects that develop, validate, and critique novel scientometric indicators for use in research assessment and in future metascience research.

The increasing availability of scientific output data and metadata, combined with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning abilities in analysing semantic content, is creating the conditions for a paradigm shift in scientometrics. These developments offer the opportunity to develop new measures of research excellence and impact that go beyond traditional citation-based metrics.

This is reflected in a growing range of innovations in the measurement and understanding of research quality. These include indicators of novelty, disruption, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, quality, replicability, integrity, semantic relevance, research papers to to patents and policy and more sophisticated methods for classifying types of citations. In addition, a recent independent report REF-AI argues that there is a growing imperative to consider the potential for using large language models for assessment in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework 2029.

However, many of these indicators and methods lack validation, theoretical reflection, and deep engagement with end users and the research community. This sandpit seeks to address these challenges.

This sandpit will focus on the following three key areas where improved scientometric indicators could have significant impact:

• Evaluation of research portfolios, for instance, in national research assessment exercises, internal analyses by research institutions, or for use by research funders.
• Individual programme or project-level evaluation within a public or private research institution or research funding organisation.
• The field of metascience where no standard suite of agreed measures exists to enable consistent comparison of research and policy interventions.

The sandpit will take place over four days, and attendance will be mandatory for selected participants over two weeks, in-person at UKRI Swindon on 15 to 16 April 2026, and remotely on 21 April and 23 April 2026.

Following the sandpit, the funders will support 12-month research projects to deliver actionable research findings, including the development of new open access indicators and measures. The intention is not to support exploratory, open-ended work, but rather to develop measures and indicators to a point where they can be readily implemented by research funders, policymakers and other potential users. Throughout these projects, the funded cohort of grant holders will form an expert challenge group, acting as both as critical friend and peer support for each other.