A year of inaction: why has the Royal Society allowed itself to be hollowed out by Elon Musk? And why does that matter more than ever? https://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/02/11/year-of-inaction-royal-society-hollowed-out-musk/
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Stephen Curry
@StephenCurry@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2Emeritus Prof (Imperial); Dir. of Strategy at RoRI. Former DORA Chair. Husband, father, carer. Also cares about science & equity. Personal a/c.
Writes occasionally at http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/.
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Joined November 04, 2022
In the interests of more open and informed discussion of the issues raised by the Royal Society's failure to address Musk's actions, I have published a longer version of my critique of President Nurse's recent interviews (highlighted in today's Guardian): https://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/01/14/critique-president-royal-society-comments-musk/
NEW on the RoRI Substack: @tomstafford@mastodon.online describes how he implemented a partial randomisation scheme to help a funder disburse emergency grants to researchers hit by Trump turbulence https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/bingo-partial-randomisation-for-emergency
A Quiet Light - reflections stirred by seeing the luminous paintings of Anna Ancher. https://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/01/10/a-quiet-light/
NEW POST from @tomstafford@mastodon.online on the RoRI substack taking a closer look at the point of no return in research funding processes. https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/the-point-of-no-return
Provocative NEW POST on the RoRI Substack: Adam Golberg asks how universities and funders might 'cull' uncompetitive research grant applications to relieve unsustainable pressures on the system. https://researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/reducing-waste-in-the-competition
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I’m also delighted and excited that DORA now has brilliant new leadership team to take the organisation forward. My very best wishes to co-chairs Ginny Barbour & Kelly Cobey, and to vice-chair Rebecca Lawrence. I will be cheering them on from the sidelines! 2/2 https://sfdora.org/2023/11/27/dora-welcomes-new-co-chairs-and-vice-chair/
Looking forward to lots of lively metascience discussion on the new RoRI substack. Read my inaugural post to find out what we’re up to. https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/time-to-go-meta
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@SusiArnott I wasn't there but saw it later online. Very good - much more robust on this issue than the RS has been. Wrote about it here: https://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/06/19/conduct-unbecoming-royal-society-musk-box/
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@jeroenbosman @jameswilsdon @briannosek @RoRInstitute The language on the website has now been updated. Hopefully this goes some way to addressing the concern you raised. Thanks again.
NEW on the RoRI Substack: @tomstafford@mastodon.online muses on an exploration of the curious interaction between theory testability and the distribution of scholarly prestige. https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/good-investments-in-the-prestige
NEW on the RoRI Substack this week: Moumita Koley & Chandan Nagarajappa examine the metascience gaps that have resulted in misplaced R&D investment priorities in India https://researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/why-metascience-matters
Provocative new post from Youyou Wu on the RoRI substack. What happens when AI peer review does a surprisingly good job? https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/no-paper-is-perfect
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@noodlemaz you mean the link to the blog? That’s odd. I doubt it’s because of traffic. Could you try again?
LATEST on the RoRI Substack: Marta Wróblewska offers 10 practical suggestions on how to write an impactful impact case study: https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/the-art-of-the-impact-case-study
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@mrak here’s what the RS says about his achievements: https://royalsociety.org/people/elon-musk-13829/
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@jeroenbosman @jameswilsdon @briannosek @RoRInstitute Hi Jeroen - thanks for the comment. There was no intention to signal that posters are '2nd rate'. Unfortunately the submission system did not allow us to offer proposers the option to select talk or poster. We will amend the language on the website (today hopefully) to try to even things up.
NEW on the RoRI Substack: Rei Nouchi and Noel Kikuchi report on a new metascience initiative in Japan
https://open.substack.com/pub/researchonresearchinstitute/p/the-enthusiasm-for-good-science-in