AI-only review rejects half of grant proposals in UKRI-funded call, sparking alarm
birchlse · x · 2026-09-26
- In a UKRI-funded cybersecurity call, an academic network used AI-only review to triage 179 proposals, rejecting half before any human read them.
- The pipeline scored applications against seven criteria (relevance, quality, novelty, feasibility, value for money) with multiple models, plus a second pass with different models to guard against any single model's idiosyncrasies; only the top half went to human review.
- John Stott, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at Lancaster University, said he had "seen the future and it's bleak" and would avoid funders assessing this way in the future.
- Academics have expressed dismay; UKRI has been approached for comment.
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