Biography
James is a transdisciplinary social scientist and meta-researcher who works on the governance of science and research, and the relationship between evidence and decision-making. In 2023, James joined UCL as Professor of Research Policy, from where he directs the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), which he co-founded in 2019 with a mission to accelerate transformative research on research systems, cultures and decision-making. Since the late-1990s, as a researcher, writer, government adviser and campaigner, James has worked at the heart of science and research policy in the UK and internationally. In addition to academic posts at the universities of Sheffield, Sussex and Lancaster, he has worked in think tanks, NGOs and as director of science policy for the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. In 2014, James was asked to chair an independent UK review of research metrics, published as The Metric Tide. In 2022, with Stephen Curry and Elizabeth Gadd, he revisited these debates in Harnessing the Metric Tide.