UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced £11.5 million toward a pioneering AI-driven initiative called METIUS (Mobilising Evidence Through Artificial Intelligence and User-Informed Synthesis), designed to speed up how research is brought into real-world decisions. The project combines artificial intelligence with expert human input to make evidence synthesis faster, more relevant, and more accessible to policymakers who are tackling urgent global challenges—from climate change and education to justice and development.

The consortium led by Queen’s University Belfast includes ESRC, NERC, Wellcome Trust, and 3ie, among others.

The announcement below includes the complete details.

An £11.5 million AI-driven evidence synthesis project will turbocharge policymakers’ ability to quickly understand scientific evidence on important issues.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced funding for a landmark investment to revolutionise how scientific evidence and research is synthesised and delivered to policymakers in the UK and worldwide.

Mobilising evidence through artificial intelligence (AI) and user-informed synthesis (METIUS) is a new infrastructure.

It aims to harness cutting-edge AI to dramatically improve the speed, relevance and accessibility of evidence synthesis for decision-makers tackling urgent challenges.

The challenge for policymakers is often in sourcing the specific information they need from troves of research, rather than a lack of available evidence.This UK-led project will use AI to pinpoint the information researchers need, and quickly, to improve outcomes in everything from education to justice, climate change to international development, which ultimately benefits us all.