Research Professional News (RPN), the daily funding and research-policy title read across UK and international research offices for more than three decades, is closing. Clarivate, which operates the title within its Research Funding Analytics portfolio, has confirmed the final edition will publish on 31 December 2026. Days later, the journalist who founded the service, William Cullerne Bown, announced he is starting an independent successor.
What Clarivate has said
According to reporting from Research Information, Clarivate characterised the closure as a difficult decision driven by the economics of sustaining specialist journalism. Clarivate’s Emmanuel Thiveaud was quoted saying: “As a business, we must focus on our core offering: the expert data, insights and analytics, workflow…” — framing the closure as a refocusing on Clarivate’s core data-and-analytics business rather than a verdict on the title’s editorial performance. Thiveaud reportedly praised the publication’s three-decade track record and its editorial team.
Clarivate has said that past RPN content will remain freely accessible to readers and the wider research community after the title stops publishing — the closure affects future output, not the existing archive.
A title with roots back to 1994
RPN traces to Research Fortnight, founded in 1994 by Cullerne Bown. Writing on his own Substack to announce his next venture, Cullerne Bown confirmed he founded the original service and has now decided, in his words, to “dive back in” following the owners’ decision to close what the title became. The publication has operated for some years as part of Clarivate’s Research Funding Analytics division, alongside the company’s other academic and government-facing data products.
For UK research offices in particular, RPN’s daily coverage of funder policy, university strategy, appointments and the wider research-policy landscape has functioned as a near-default trade press — the kind of publication research administrators and funding officers track alongside primary sources like funder funding opportunity announcements to stay ahead of application deadlines and eligibility changes. Its closure removes a long-standing single point of reference for that beat, at least until a replacement establishes itself.
The successor: what’s confirmed, what isn’t
On 26 July 2026, Cullerne Bown published a post titled “Coming soon: a new publication on research, higher education and industrial strategy from the guy who brought you the old one (me)” on his Substack. He confirmed he is launching an independent publication covering research, higher education and industrial strategy, describing the goal as a modern publication that “does news the old-fashioned way.” Readers can register interest at william.cullernebown.uk.
Several details remain unconfirmed as of this writing: Cullerne Bown’s announcement did not name the new title, state a firm launch date, or describe its business model (subscription, institutional licensing, or otherwise). The timing — announced roughly three weeks after Clarivate’s closure announcement, with RPN’s own final edition set for 31 December 2026 — strongly signals continuity, but CASRAI has not seen a confirmed launch date and is not asserting one here.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1994 | William Cullerne Bown founds Research Fortnight, the title’s original precursor |
| Early July 2026 | Clarivate confirms Research Professional News will close, with a final edition scheduled for 31 December 2026 |
| 26 July 2026 | Cullerne Bown announces plans for an independent successor publication via Substack |
| 31 December 2026 | RPN’s scheduled final publication date |
| After closure | Clarivate says RPN’s existing archive will remain freely accessible |
Why this matters for research offices
For grants and research-development teams, the practical question isn’t nostalgic — it’s where the daily policy-and-funding signal moves next. RPN functioned for many offices as a filter layer on top of primary sources: funder announcements, government consultations, and the kind of documents research administrators already track through their own grants management workflows and tools like a Notice of Funding Opportunity reading. Losing that filter layer, even temporarily, puts more weight on offices’ own primary-source monitoring until a successor (Cullerne Bown’s or otherwise) is established and trusted at comparable scale.
CASRAI will continue to track this story, including the successor publication’s name, launch date and access model, and will update this post or publish a follow-up as those details are confirmed by primary sources.
Sources: Research Information (“Clarivate to close Research Professional News,” 2 July 2026); William Cullerne Bown, Substack (“Coming soon: a new publication on research, higher education and industrial strategy from the guy who brought you the old one (me),” 26 July 2026); Clarivate’s Research Professional News product page.
