wrmthorne/ukri-panel-meetings

---
license: cc-by-nc-sa-4.0
language:
- en
tags:
- funding
- ukri
- research-funding
- panel-meetings
- peer-review
- uk-research
pretty_name: UKRI Panel Meetings and Attendance
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
---

# UKRI Panel Meetings and Attendance

A structured dataset of 1,450 competitive funding panel meetings across seven UKRI research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC), comprising 38,862 application outcomes and 6,951 panel attendance records.

This dataset accompanies the paper *"Demystifying Funding: Reconstructing a Unified Dataset of the UK Funding Lifecycle"* (NSLP 2026) and the [GtR Database repository](https://github.com/wrmthorne/GtR-Extended). The source data was collected as part of the [UKRI Panel Meetings and Attendance](https://github.com/wrmthorne/UKRI-Panel-Meetings-and-Attendance) project.

## Background

UKRI research councils are required to publish the outcomes of competitive funding panel meetings, but do so inconsistently across councils and over time. Publication formats range from spreadsheets and PDFs to Tableau dashboards with data exports disabled. This dataset consolidates these disparate sources into a single structured format, enabling analysis of funding decisions at the point where panels determine which proposals receive funding.

## Collection

Meeting outcomes and panel attendance were collected from a combination of the UKRI website, the Government Web Archive, and (where no alternative existed) Tableau dashboards. Collection was performed between **18 March 2026 and 22 March 2026**. Source formats vary by council:

- **ESRC**: Continuously updated spreadsheet on UKRI website
- **AHRC** (pre-2018): National Archives; (post-2018): Tableau dashboard
- **BBSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC**: Combination of UKRI website, Government Web Archive, PDFs, and spreadsheets
- **EPSRC**: Tableau dashboard
- **MRC** (2025 onward): Tableau dashboard

Panel attendance is recorded separately from application outcomes in most cases, and is not available for all meetings. Of the 1,450 meetings, 588 have successfully reconciled panel attendance records.

## Structure

Each row represents a single panel meeting. Applications and panellists are stored as lists of objects within each row.

### Meeting-Level Fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `council` | string | UKRI research council code (e.g. AHRC, EPSRC) |
| `meeting_name` | string | Name of the panel meeting |
| `meeting_reference` | string | Panel reference identifier, where available |
| `meeting_convenor` | string | Name of the meeting convenor, where available |
| `year` | int | Year of the meeting |
| `meeting_start` | string | Start date of the meeting (ISO 8601 or year-month) |
| `meeting_end` | string | End date of the meeting (ISO 8601 or year-month) |
| `notes` | string | Notes from the source document (e.g. sift exclusions) |
| `source` | string | Source file or URL the data was extracted from |

### Application Fields (nested list: `applications`)

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `application_id` | string | Application identifier |
| `award_id` | string | Award/grant identifier, where available |
| `title` | string | Application title, where available |
| `lead_applicant` | string | Name of the lead applicant, where available |
| `lead_organisation` | string | Lead applicant's organisation, where available |
| `outcome` | string | Funding decision (e.g. Funded, Unsuccessful) |
| `score` | string | Panel score, where available |
| `rank` | string | Rank within the panel, where available |
| `rank_group` | string | Rank group, where available |
| `awarded_amount` | string | Awarded funding amount, where available |
| `route` | string | Funding route/scheme, where available |
| `opportunity` | string | Opportunity name referenced by the application, where available |
| `panel` | string | Sub-panel name, where available |
| `notes` | string | Application-level notes, where available |

### Panellist Fields (nested list: `panellists`)

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `name` | string | Panellist name |
| `organisation` | string | Panellist's affiliated organisation |
| `role` | string | Role on the panel (e.g. Member, Chair) |

## Limitations

- **Incomplete attendance**: Only 588 of 1,450 meetings have reconciled panel attendance, due to attendance being recorded separately or not at all by many councils.
- **Inconsistent fields**: Not all fields are populated for all councils. Available metadata varies significantly by council and time period (e.g. scores and ranks are not always provided).
- **Tableau restrictions**: EPSRC, post-2018 AHRC, and MRC from 2025 onward publish exclusively through Tableau with data exports disabled, limiting what could be extracted.
- **AHRC post-2018**: Unavailable at the time of writing following a report to UKRI concerning unintentionally published applicant names, affiliations, and project titles for unsuccessful proposals.
- **Date granularity**: Some meetings only have year-month precision for start/end dates.