Today we announce that two more UK institutions, the Universities of Leeds and Sussex, have joined the UKRN Open Research Programme, bringing the total number of partners to 24. This means that two thirds of the now 36 institutional members of UKRN have joined the Programme, and more are considering this additional step.
Joining the Open Research Programme gives partners the chance to influence its direction and priorities, benefit from its training offer (look out for a major announcement about that on Thursday), enable staff and partner institutions to raise their national and international profile, share practice and lessons with others, gain evidence of their progress in a key aspect of the research environment, and signal their commitment to a positive research culture.
Professor Seb Oliver, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Research at Sussex and UKRN institutional lead, 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.
Professor Cat Davies, Dean for Research Culture at Leeds, said:
Becoming a partner institution on UKRN’s Open Research Programme strengthens our relationship with this fantastic network. By sharing the University of Leeds’ open research initiatives, we can collaborate to better embed sector practices, as well as benefit from insights from fellow partners. This is great news for Leeds’ work in research culture.