We’re delighted to welcome Dr Charlotte Pennington as a keynote speaker at the inaugural UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) conference in July 2026.
UKRN brings together researchers, institutions and organisations working in the UK research system to collaborate, so they are better able to conduct and promote rigorous, reproducible, and transparent research. The conference will showcase what UKRN have built and implemented, and how our unique structure gives us the power to drive collaborative change to improve UK research.
Charlotte is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Aston University and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. As an experimental social psychologist, her research focuses on how people’s complex social environments impact upon health and wellbeing.
Charlotte has a passion for open science, methodological rigour and reproducibility, particularly with regards to embedding these principles into early research training. She is the UKRN Local Network Lead for Aston University and also the Impact Lead for the Framework for Open & Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), and an Action Editor for Registered Reports at Addiction Research & Theory and Peer Community In.
She is the author of “A Student’s Guide to Open Science: Using the Replication Crisis to Reform Psychology”, which won the British Psychological Society’s Textbook Award in 2024. Charlotte wrote the book for her younger self, because it would have helped her to better understand replication and reproducibility challenges in her own field and best practices for mitigating such challenges. She argues that students need this foundational knowledge so that they do not internalise difficulties in research to themselves!
Charlotte’s conference presentation, ‘Awareness and Use of Open Research Practices Across The Globe: Findings and Lessons Learned From Big Team Science’ will outline findings from a large-scale study with UKRN and international collaborators. These highlight variations in Open Research based on region, discipline and methodology, and researcher’s perceptions of what would support them in using more open practices. Charlotte will also discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by such ‘big team science’ approaches, as well as her hopes for future collaboration within UKRN and beyond.
Charlotte’s talk is part of a wide programme of presentations, workshops and activities at the UKRN conference. The event will offer delegates opportunities to engage across the research sector, to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones. Join us, work with us to improve UK research.
To learn out more about Charlotte’s work, find her on LinkedIn
Register your interest in the UKRN July 2026 conference here