Margot Finn

Interested in research policy, supporting early career researchers or helping research potential donors for Humanities and Social Science research? Check out these positions at the British Academy. #Skystorians

Spanish PM Sánchez responds to Trump:

"Spain is against this disaster... Govts are here to improve people's lives... It is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are unable to fulfill that mission use the smoke of war to hide their failure, and in the process, fill the pockets of a few."

Is it finally the year of Linux on the desktop?

The Reading Room at Wellcome Collection. A room with objects and artefacts in display cases, as well as bookshelves, desks and chairs. Image credit: The Reading Room, Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection.

🏛️ 📚 Read this Open Letter! @harrietbarratt.bsky.social @drfijohnstone.bsky.social & @coreenanne.bsky.social respond to the recent Wellcome report on the use of archives, manuscripts and material cultures in health research.

medhumsplatform.org/open-letter-...

Medieval-style drawing of a standing man (on left) holding a golden egg in his right hand, with a nesting goose on his right. No goose, no eggs is a principle bits of UK government are really struggling with. Please avoid the omelette option on AI and copyright!

The publications of these presses play vital roles in sustaining the research pipeline via e.g. learned societies (which in turn fund researchers, especially ECRs). There is a real possibility here that the preferred government option will slaughter the geese that are laying many golden eggs. 3/3

'It comes after the government said its preferred option for implementing changes to UK copyright law is an exception to be made for data mining which allows rights holders to reserve their rights.'

3% of respondents to govt consultation supported govt proposal; 88% did not. Listening anyone? 2/3

'The Publishers Association, whose members include academic publishers across the UK, released a report on 4 March making the case for the protection of content as demand for its use by AI companies grows.' 1/3

SHAPE Conference 2026 The British Academy's annual SHAPE conference will be held in London on 4 March 2026.

The Arts and Humanities Alliance is proud to sponsor the 2026 @britishacademy.bsky.social SHAPE conference. Our session is Myth busting for the public with @ritagardner.bsky.social @jennyrichards.bsky.social & @sebgordon1.bsky.social
Chair @emmacayley.bsky.social www.eventbrite.com/e/shape-conf...

We’re getting into the weeds of how we tell a better story about the value of HE and research in society with our brilliant plenary panel @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social, British Academy President Susan J Smith and Professor Malcolm Press from Universities UK #SHAPEConference26

How Teens Use and View AI Just over half of U.S. teens say they've used chatbots for help with schoolwork, and 12% say they’ve gotten emotional support from these tools. Teens tend to view AI's future impact on their lives more positively than negatively.

🤖 See our full report on teens and AI here:

"As one of the four national academies, the British Academy is both a key stakeholder for the department but also a delivery partner playing an important role in the overall research and innovation landscape. I'm grateful to the Academy for your leadership and advocacy across the SHAPE disciplines."

Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear, was welcomed by our President Susan J. Smith. His keynote began with strong support the Academy's role in research. #SHAPEConference26

Tumbling down that hill at pace....

No, it's more like hosepipes joining them.

No, Bucket 1 is biggest. But the contents in Bucket 1 are sometimes used in Buckets 2 or 3. It's bucket magic.

Hey ChatGPT, write me a fictional paper: these LLMs are willing to commit academic fraud Mainstream chatbots presented varying levels of resistance to deliberate requests for fabrication, study finds.

'All major large language models (LLMs) can be used to either commit academic fraud or facilitate junk science, a test of 13 models has found.'

All versions of Claude are 'the most resistant to committing fraud'.

Which LLM is your university encouraging students to use most? Asking for a friend.

The development of a Future Framework for Scotland’s universities is underway Scotland’s Future Framework will set out the options for the next 20 years of higher education. Co-convenor Andrea Nolan presents the work taking place Scotland’s Future Framework will set out a visio...

'We’re working to deliver options by late autumn, so that it’s one of the first things in the in-tray for the new Scottish Government and Parliament to pick up.'

YouTube video by UK Research and Innovation UKRI update from Professor Sir Ian Chapman

And here is the UKRI video explaining buckets. 2/2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=osnq...

Ian Chapman maps the changes to UKRI’s budget between 2026 and 2030 Changes to how UKRI will deliver its investments have prompted questions and debate. UKRI’s CEO Ian Chapman discusses the rationale and mapping the old world onto the new

'Today, in a video published on the UKRI website, and in this piece, I want to describe what this means for individual researchers and innovators and, in particular, the place for curiosity-driven research within that.' 1/2

Middle East crisis could halt internationalisation, experts warn ‘Inevitable’ that conflict will bring ‘serious’ repercussions, as universities forced to reassess expansion plans amid increased insecurity

“I think universities will only rethink when the endeavour is not ludicrous for them; after all, we know that the higher education sector is in crisis, and the only reason to stop expanding to the Gulf or to halt their activities there would be profit.” (Mayssoun Sukarieh, KCL)

Most Reform members believe non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave, poll finds Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate

Hope Not Hate research finds: '54% of Reform members thought non-white British citizens born abroad should be forcibly removed or encouraged to leave, while one in five (22%) also supported it for non-white citizens whose parents were born in the UK.'

Rank racism.

UK to invoke ‘emergency brake’ to ban student visa applications from four countries Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan will be affected by the move

If you know your British including British colonial history, you might be a bit appalled.

UK halts visa routes from four countries amid claims migrants ‘exploiting’ asylum The UK Government has placed an emergency brake on visas for nationals from four countries, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accused them of exploiting Britain’s generosity to claim asylum. Study vis...

The UK Government has placed an emergency brake on visas for nationals from four countries, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accused them of exploiting Britain’s generosity to claim asylum

US Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up the ​issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning ‌away a case involving a computer scienti...

“The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the ​issue of whether art generated by AI can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning ‌away a case involving a computer scientist from Missouri who was denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system.”

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Universities pay copyright fees. Libraries pay copyright fees. Theaters pay to perform copyrighted work. Artists and authors pay licence fees to quote others in their own work, usually out of pocket.

“Enoch was right” really is the secret password to their club….

We’re delighted to feature our story discs project at the #MovedToCare exhibition!

Join us at the launch this Thursday evening to say hi and fill in a disc. Prompts range from "I migrated here" to "My grandparents migrated here" and more.

Hope to see familiar faces and make new friends! ✨

Iran's next Supreme Leader is named - as Trump threatens to unleash more fury Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba has been elected by the Iran's Assembly of Experts as the country's next Supreme Leader, according to Iranian media

Khamenei has emerged as the victor of the leadership contest in Iran to replace Khamenei, his father, according to Iran International reports being picked up in international media

www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...

Rather a lot of founders fund these disciplines BA, Leverhulme etc but I think this is not the issue: who is minding the disciplines?

Are they really? Art History and Anthropology and Theatre Studies are disciplines. Is RC funding ‘based’ on them? In what sense?

Ah, the Singles Market...