In July 2025, the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) submitted detailed feedback to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on its draft research data policy. Drawing on insights from the UKRN community and evidence from initiatives like the STAR project and Open Research indicator pilots, the response highlights key areas for improvement.
UKRN welcomed UKRI’s commitment to greater transparency and a comprehensive data policy but called for clearer definitions and expectations. The feedback emphasized the need to:
- Align transparency with UKRN’s definition of reproducibility, including full visibility into research design, reasoning, and outputs.
- Explicitly include essential research materials, such as protocols, stimuli, and interview guides, as part of the data landscape.
- Clarify the policy’s applicability to non-digital and discipline-specific materials, especially in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
UKRN also urged UKRI to better reflect epistemic diversity by adapting language and definitions to suit a broader range of research traditions. This includes recognizing that terms like “data” may not be universally applicable and that research outputs can be interpretive, contextual, or constructed.
Additional recommendations included addressing the policy’s relevance to doctoral training grants, multi-group international collaborations, and hardware design, as well as aligning with REF guidance and providing clearer scope boundaries.
UKRN’s full feedback aims to support a more inclusive, transparent, and practical data policy that works across the full spectrum of UKRI-funded research. Read the full feedback paper