UKRI Metascience AI Early Career Fellowships (UK)

This is a fellowship programme for early career philosophers, social scientists, or AI researchers interested in building a career in understanding the implications of AI for the science and research ecosystem, and how governments, industry, and funding organisations should respond. UK based fellows will be funded by the UK Metascience Unit, with a parallel international cohort expected to be supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Objectives

• The AI Metascience Fellowship Programme will support a cohort of early career researchers to deepen their understanding of AI technology and pursue career paths which evaluate the phenomenon of AI-mediated science and guide their pursuit of it, covering one or more of the following objectives:
  • Building their understanding of how the growing adoption of AI is changing the research landscape and the day-to-day work of researchers
  • Building their understanding of the epistemic, metascientific, ethical or socioeconomic implications of these changes
  • Building understanding of how governments, industry, or funding organisations should respond to improve their research landscape

Focus Areas

• The following are some indicative examples of topic areas of interest:
  • The impact of AI on the topics and methods of scientific research, and how this varies across disciplines
  • AI and the pace of scientific progress
  • Explainability and alignment in scientific AI
  • The educational and training implications of scientific AI
  • The role of humans in AI-driven science
  • Epistemic and ethical considerations concerning the application of AI in the production of research outputs and the assessment of research

Funding Information

• Total fund: £4,000,000
• Maximum award: £260,000
• The duration of this award is up to two years, or equivalent length of time extended pro rata for part-time applicants.

Eligible Costs

• You may request funding for:
  • Fellow salary costs
  • Equipment and other items needed to carry out the project
  • Costs related to impact
  • Travel and subsistence

Ineligible Costs

• They will not fund costs for project co-leads, additional researchers or individual items of equipment over £10,000 (including VAT).

Eligibility Criteria

• The funding opportunity is open to early career researchers who have completed their PhD by the start date of the fellowship or who can demonstrate equivalent research or innovation experience.
• There are no eligibility rules based on years since PhD or whether the applicant currently holds a permanent or open-ended academic position or job role. However, individuals should not previously have been a project lead or lead on an externally funded project or led a significant programme of work in a commercial or non-academic setting.
• This fellowship programme is intended for researchers who are uniquely interested in AI’s impact on science, rather than general AI ethics, safety and society-related topics, as these are covered substantially elsewhere.
• Eligibility for businesses
  • If you are a business, check the specific criteria in the funding opportunity. They run eligibility checks for each application. Most funding opportunities for businesses are offered through Innovate UK.
  • You must be a UK-registered business to apply for funding as a project lead. Check the funding opportunity for details about who you can collaborate with.
  • To be eligible as a UK-registered business you must have a Companies House registration number.
  • You are not eligible to apply as a project lead if your business:
    • Has an FC or BR prefix on your registration number
    • Is registered in the Channel Islands or Isle of Man

Ineligibility Criteria

• This programme will not fund fellows whose primary research objective involves working directly on scientific AI tool development.

Assessment Criteria

• The assessment areas they will use are:
  • Vision
  • Approach to the fellowship
  • Applicant capability to deliver the fellowship
  • Career development
  • Host organisation support
  • Resources and cost justifications
  • Ethical and responsible research and innovation considerations
  • Your mentor statement

For more information, visit UK Research and Innovation.