Our work with UKRN

A short history…

The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) was launched in 2019 to unite and support a growing community of researchers already engaged with reproducibility issues. The aim was to empower this grassroots movement to bring about lasting change.

Professor Zoltan Dienes was just one of those already advocating for Open Science at Sussex, acting as unofficial Local Network Lead (LNL) with UKRN before we formally joined in 2022.

Professor Seb Oliver, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Research, took on the role of Institutional Lead and Prof Zoltan Dienes became an official LNL.

Partnerships have since grown further, with Dr. Andre Maia Chagas, leader of the Open Research Technologies Hub, becoming our second LNL in 2024.

The Open Research Programme

UKRN were awarded £4.5 million by Research England in 2021, allowing them to focus on embedding open research practices across the sector.

In February 2024, we signed up to the Open Research Programme, one of UKRN’s main activities, aiming to accelerate the uptake of high-quality Open Research practices. Seb Oliver said:

UKRN exemplifies the collaborative working essential to achieve lasting change to open research across the sector. Open research is fundamental to our aspirations of knowledge equity and ensuring an exceptionally high degree of trust in the new knowledge generated through our research. These aspirations are very strongly aligned with the values of Sussex and we are delighted to be part of the network and to work with the community to achieve our collective goals." Seb Oliver
Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research

As part of the programme, we benefit from:

• Training – Rollout of multi-institutional, high-quality training in open and transparent research practices.
• Evaluation – Making use of the shared framework for ongoing evaluation, allowing us to measure continuous improvement.
• Sharing and integrating – Sharing what works among partner institutions and encouraging aligned goals.
• Management and sustainability – Leadership and resources to support ORP going forwards.
• Open and Responsible reward recognition – Finding new ways to recruit, promote and appraise staff which include incentives for open research practices.

Projects to get involved with

Train-the-trainer programme (part of the ORP)

Offering training across a range of Open Research topics (Open Hardware, reproducibility, data management etc.), enabling Sussex staff to develop the skills and materials to train colleagues.

Open Research Indicators

UKRN is exploring the feasibility of providing valid, reliable and ethical indicators for the following features of open research: open/FAIR data, the use of data availability statements, pre-registration, as well as the use of the CRediT taxonomy, on which Sussex has partnered with Newcastle to lead a pilot.

For enquires relating to the UKRN Open Research programme at Sussex, please contact our Open Research Coordinator and Administrator (ORCA), Alice Sambrook: a.sambrook@sussex.ac.uk