By Will Gawned, UKRN administrator
The UK Reproducibility Network is committed to supporting its Local Network Leads, who represent the UKRN’s grassroots network of researchers, promoting open scholarship, open research and reproducibility. We are proud to be represented by 64 Local Network Leads working across 57 institutions, and recognise their vital contribution.
We have sent 26 letters of recognition to senior management teams of those Local Network Leads who accepted our offer to do so. Our goal is to raise awareness of the incredible work our volunteer Local Network Leads are doing, and encourage Institutions to provide support and recognition for this essential work.
Additionally, to build and strengthen this community and offer professional development opportunities, we are launching an annual UKRN Local Network Lead Retreat, and a monthly series of online workshops exclusively for our Local Network Leads.
The 2021 UKRN Local Network Lead Retreat will take place over 3 days and 2 nights, from Monday 9th August to Wednesday 11th August at Cumberland Lodge, in Windsor Great Park. The programme focuses on developing leadership, and offers opportunities to connect with other Local Network Leads to support our growing community.
We aim to vary the location and dates of future retreats, to try to ensure all our Local Network Leads have an opportunity to attend a retreat in the future.
In September 2021, we will also be launching a year-long programme of online workshops for Local Network Leads. These workshops will take place over lunchtime (12:30 pm to 13:30 pm) on the second Wednesday of each month, and will cover the following topics:
- Meet the Supervisory Board
- Setting up a Local Network
- Setting up a ReproducibiliTea journal club
- Setting up a RIOT Science Club
- Setting up an Open Research Working Group
- Leadership
- Goal-setting and productive writing
- Coaching
- Mentorship
- Self-management: deep work
- Media skills
- Virtual writing retreat
These workshops are exclusively available for our Local Network Leads, and will be recorded for any Local Network Leads unable to attend online on the day.
If you are interested in getting involved in your Local Network, or in establishing a Local Network at your institution as its lead if one does not already exist, please contact us for further information: contact@ukrn.org.