Research

While universities bankroll more research from their own pockets they exercise less discretion about the things they study

Annual meetings should be reimagined as spaces that enable connections – including with practitioners and the media, says Noam Schimmel

UK science secretary claims she is taking a stand against the ‘slow creep of wokeism’ in academia

University of Pennsylvania’s ‘tenacious’ laureates reflect on coping with demotion, dismissal and desk rejection to continue their mRNA research

We need to encourage and support scientists to leap into the unknown to solve our grand challenges faster and more equitably, says Xiangkun Cao

Hideo Ohno urges a level-headed approach as university seeks final green light in high-stakes excellence scheme

Asia saw the largest rise of all continents in research quality, teaching score, and overall performance in the latest World University Rankings

Hong Kong and the Netherlands lead new THE metrics measuring research strength, excellence and influence 

Southeast Asian country has made big gains on student-staff ratio since 2020, while Hungary has improved on share of postgraduate researchers

North America has also revived while Oceania’s international outlook has dipped. Patrick Jack picks out key rankings trends

European nations have the highest research income levels, but Hong Kong and Australia surpass them in research productivity

UK and US universities struggle to keep pace with top Asian performers as research funding shares decline

We’re gathering data on interdisciplinary science and online learning, and making improvements to some of our existing rankings, to capture insights on more of the work that universities do, says THE’s chief data officer 

While the process to replace Excellence in Research for Australia is a ‘black box’ exercise, new evaluation mechanisms hold promise

Research ecosystems need some ‘apoptosis’ as some cells emerge and others fade away, summit hears

Pairing of ideologically opposed academics should become sector norm when researchers disagree, says Pennsylvania project leader

Think twice before pushing bush campuses into national institution or shotgun marriages with research elite, says Chris Hutchison

‘The real world doesn’t come neatly compartmentalised,’ summit hears, in exploration of the ‘unique’ strengths of multidisciplinary research

Incentives needed to build research across disciplines to address global challenges, THE summit hears

The authoritarian country has rich datasets for research collaboration, but while some new regulations may feel familiar to European eyes, any comfort must come with big ethical caveats, an expert says

Partnership will seek to reward institutions that incentivise cross-disciplinary work aimed at solving the world’s biggest challenges

Nishan Canagarajah says expansion of prestigious UK university grouping to include his institution is long overdue

Leading economist says new innovation agency needs to be surrounded by a stable ecosystem to enjoy success

The only way to get a permanent contract seems to be to take a teaching position. But that isn’t where my skills or interests lie, says Vanessa Baxter

Only one in five researchers in UK universities have been employed in private sector, says new report

As a human activity, research cannot but be cultural as much as it is scientific, say Annamaria Carusi and Shomari Lewis-Wilson

After its celebrated 2020 response to George Floyd killing, university now accused of political performance

Nobel-winning scientists are now using large language models, but experts say their impact on research is only just starting

Barack Obama’s favourite political thinker Yascha Mounk has made his career attacking right-wing populism. His latest target – identity politics fostered on US campuses – will surprise many of his acolytes, he tells Matthew Reisz

Listing all contributors would avoid damaging rows and properly reflect work of scholars, says elite European university group

Non-elite institutions have fuelled recent technological successes – with IIT graduates ‘few and far between’ at India’s space agency

Researcher disturbed by how easy it was to get sucked into lives of women who serve up beauty advice alongside racial hatred

Science minister says deal addresses ‘big fear’ UK participation would not recover and allows UK to be net beneficiary

Country’s two years outside of €95 billion research programme comes to an end

Proposed research priorities focus more on broad societal goals than on the mechanisms for achieving them

Cedars poll highlights toxic working environments in British universities that REF’s focus on research culture aims to tackle

Affordable AI-powered writing software offers some hope to scholars unfairly criticised for their imperfect English, but more radical change is required, says Natalia Kucirkova

Scholars lament loss of ‘critical’ resource in Nordics at a time when knowledge of Asia is ‘increasingly important’

Departmental hierarchies, job precarity and institutions’ need to protect their star professors enables bullies to thrive in Britain’s top universities, says Wyn Evans

US study finds doctoral students who are supervised by leading inventors, or who are male, are much more likely to file patents

Remodelling engineering degrees to include rewilding and ecological restoration would benefit students, society and the planet, says Paul Jepson

Leaked draft of summertime power grab has spooked scientists, but most admit country’s network of 76 institutes needs reform

If Stanford’s now-departed president had fully faced up to dubious practices in his lab and insisted on corrections, his infractions of research integrity could have been forgiven, says David Sanders

Stanford University chemist unrepentant about his contrarianism during the pandemic despite some of his bold predictions proving incorrect

At the heart of the debate about the global competitiveness of EU-funded research is the question of whether science should be a tool for industrial policy or a global power for good, says Jan Palmowski

While the removal of opportunities for political ‘meddling’ has drawn widespread approval, research advocates want more funding

US grant agency hopes to ensure a more scientific approach after years of political battles over risks of China collaborations

Canberra also confirms plans to overhaul research assessment exercise and ‘take the politics out’ of grant decisions

Every day that the prime minister delays further diminishes the UK’s reputation in Europe, says Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf

Analysis of 862 scientific projects – paid for with 131 million yuan of public funding – identifies no knowledge-transfer outcomes

Freedom of speech and student welfare concerns are also likely to influence whether staff flag potential extremism to authorities, says major study

From Coldplay to Queen, the world’s biggest bands often meet as students – yet universities are seldom mentioned in song. Jeremy Clay ponders why and unearths some lost exemplars – including a long-lost Dutch psychedelic paean to the University of Leicester

We must reform a science culture that sometimes seems to value impact and quantity over importance and quality, say Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall

Paper proposes new tool that would judge major titles on metrics such as ratio of male to female authors 

Once bit players in Australia’s clinical trial landscape, universities are now easily the most prominent sponsors

University increases support for those who suffer harassment in media and online after work ‘weaponised’

Walailak’s loss of faculty seen as a grim omen for sector haemorrhaging academics

Companies consistently don’t pay full value for medical discoveries in what Bentley study calls a ‘systematic problem’

Group of leading universities warn lack of funding risks causing a ‘debilitating brain drain’

There is near-universal dismay among scientists over continued delays to UK association to Horizon Europe. It is time to replace bean-counting with vision