Championing Open Research: Collaborating with Research Leaders to Shift Culture at the University of Leeds
This talk was presented at the University of Manchester Open Research Conference, 9-10 June 2025.
Like many Universities Leeds has been exploring how to shift the institutional culture towards Open Research practices that promote transparency, accessibility, and broader definitions of impact, including the value of negative or null results and diverse research outputs. Again, like many similar organisations, we wanted to identify ‘champions’ with the disciplinary expertise to advocate for open research in a specific research context.
One option would be to recruit volunteers from across the University which is an approach that has been successful elsewhere. Considering the broader Research Culture, however, this can be problematic, if it is not properly recognised through workload allocation for example.
The decision was made that Directors of Research and Innovation (DoRIs) would take on the role as a senior leadership role at School level and supported through enhanced central support, training, and guidance by a dedicated Open Research Adviser in the Library Research Services Section.
This case study will explore the ongoing collaboration with the DoRIs to promote a more inclusive, discipline-sensitive understanding of Open Research. The project aims to embed Open Research practices across faculties by raising awareness, identifying barriers, and establishing a supportive network that responds to the diverse needs of researchers and research cultures.
ASSOCIATED LINKS
https://researchculture.leeds.ac.uk/strategic-objectives/strategic-objective-3/
