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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.Lord Vallance, Science Minister Strengthen the UK’s position in researchAI has enormous potential to turn a mass of diffuse research into synthesised, useful summaries, which can help policy makers and practitioners deliver better outcomes for citizens.This new infrastructure investment has the potential to transform how evidence informs policy decisions, and strengthen the UK’s position as a leader in research and innovation, driving economic growth and improving lives..Stian Westlake, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC),Executive ChairMETIUS is funded by UKRI through ESRC and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with co-funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). International collaboration UKRI is spearheading a global alliance of partners, including the United Nations (UN), that has now committed $126 million to catalyse the production and use of ‘living evidence synthesis’.This real-time aggregation of the latest scientific research will accelerate progress on the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).Shared strategic prioritiesAndrea Cook, Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Group System-wide Evaluation Office, said:Access to high-quality, timely evidence is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.This initiative represents an important step forward in bridging the gap between research and policy, enabling more effective and evidence-informed decision-making globally.Andrea Cook, Executive Director,UN Sustainable Development Group System-wide Evaluation OfficeThe total $126 million represents combined investments from the following where the funders are aligned around shared strategic priorities:ESRCNERCWellcome TrustDSITJacobs FoundationHealth Research Board IrelandNational Institute for Health ResearchBridging the evidence-policy gap  Too often, world-class research fails to reach people making critical decisions.Despite the wealth of scientific research being produced globally, policymakers often struggle to access relevant, timely and digestible evidence when making decisions.Recent analysis commissioned by ESRC and the Government Office for Science shows that UKRI investments alone could address 81% of priority evidence gaps identified by UK government departments.This infrastructure will address this critical gap by combining AI capabilities with human expertise to transform how evidence is synthesised, analysed and communicated to policymakers at unprecedented speed and scale.Transforming evidence synthesis through technology  The METIUS consortium is led by Queen’s University Belfast in collaboration with the Campbell Collaboration, the Pan-African Collective for Evidence, University College London and several other universities.The consortium will deliver a step-change in global evidence capabilities by:developing and deploying a powerful integrated approach combining AI capabilities with human expertise to produce evidence syntheses more rapidly, accurately and cost-effectively creating innovative tools to translate complex evidence into accessible formats for policymakers delivering a series of exemplar projects on policy areas of national and international importance, including education, crime and justice, climate, environment and society, and international development strengthening global capacity for evidence-informed policymaking Supporting global goals and national prioritiesBy working closely with the UN, this global infrastructure will accelerate progress towards achieving the UN SDGs.The infrastructure will provide policymakers with the most relevant, high-quality evidence to inform decisions on pressing challenges from climate change and energy security to economic growth and social inequalities.The investment also aligns with the UK government’s missions to drive economic growth through innovation and harness the potential of AI, ensuring the safe and ethical development of new technologies.Global alliance This UKRI initiative establishes an anchor investment in the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC).United by a shared vision to close the gap between research and action in the face of complex national and global challenges, this global alliance brings together:governmentsresearch fundersevidence producersover 50 multilateral organisationsCo-founded with the Wellcome Trust and supported by a growing coalition of philanthropic and government funders, the alliance is building a distributed AI-enabled infrastructure dedicated to living evidence synthesis.Building on the UK’s commitmentThe initiative will build on the UK’s commitment made at the September 2024 UN Summit of the Future to use science and digital technologies to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.ESRC has announced a further £6 million ‘challenge fund’ to support new collaborations with research funders that further the aims of ESIC.This includes an exemplar project with the Jacobs Foundation dedicated to improving access to evidence on effective approaches to improving educational outcomes and equity in classrooms.Further informationThis initiative is co-funded by DSIT and forms part of the UKRI Creating Opportunities and Improving Outcomes strategic theme.The investment starts from 1 October 2025 and will run for five years.The successful consortium will collaborate with existing networks and partners, including the UN Evaluation Offices, the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition and key UK government departments.ESRC originally announced plans to invest £11.5 million in an AI-driven evidence synthesis infrastructure investment at the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024.The METIUS consortium led by Queen’s University Belfast includes: Campbell Collaboration University College London The Pan-African Collective for Evidence King’s College London Newcastle University University of Exeter Education Endowment Foundation 3ie Teesside University London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Environment Agency  Campbell South Asia 

3ie has joined a global collective of partners committed to strengthening the way evidence is synthesized and used in education. Together, we are working to design and test a synthesis-ready evidence repository—a shared resource that will make high-quality, contextually relevant evidence more accessible, efficient, and actionable.

Nutrition International and 3ie have launched a groundbreaking Evidence Gap Map (EGM) to tackle the global challenge of anaemia. This collaborative initiative aims to empower policymakers and stakeholders with actionable insights to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.

3ie welcomes USAID as the newest member of the Global Evidence Commitment. As part of the Agency’s long-term commitment to evidence, Michele Sumilas, Assistant to the Administrator for Policy, Planning and Learning signed the pledge on behalf of USAID on 2 May 2024. USAID joins other leading development sector institutions that are working together to strengthen mutual learning and support in making better use of rigorous evidence. The founding signatories include the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Inter-American Development Bank, KfW Development Bank, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office, and 3ie. The Global Evidence Commitment was launched in October 2023 as a collaborative effort to improve evidence culture and use in our organizations and encourage others to undertake similar efforts by illustrating the importance of its far-reaching impacts. As the convenor of the pledge, 3ie is proud to facilitate our partners in this process. To know more about the pledge, please reach us at globalevidencecommitment@3ieimpact.org.Read the pledge