How to run experiments on your own research organisation

A small band of analysts working within European universities and funders is using experiments, surveys and other methods to improve how their institutions work, from better distributing money to uncovering unprofessional behaviour. 

But this nascent movement of internal metascientists, people who study the process of science itself from within organisations, faces hurdles such as limited funding and resistance from higher-ups who don’t welcome uncomfortable results.

At the University of Leeds, for example, an internal survey found a “worrying percentage” of staff had experienced or witnessed “unprofessional behaviour,” said Catherine Davies, a language development professor who helped run the study.

“It raised some uncomfortable truths, which were really tricky to share openly,” she told delegates at the Metascience 2025 conference in London in July this year…