What is the Open Research Fellowship Programme?
Answer
We in the Office for Open Research believe that knowledge and confidence in Open Research practices will prove essential in creating a more open, collaborative, and equitable research landscape, a strategic priority for The University of Manchester. In 2023 we launched one of our flagship initiatives to support and enable achievement of these goals: the Open Research Fellowship programme.
The Fellowship Programme aims to provide a unique opportunity for Fellows to advance their careers while contributing to the Open Research community. Notably, the programme offers financial support by covering 0.2 FTE salary costs for up to 5 Fellows, for a period of 12 months (subject to Head of School approval).
Buyout of time allows Fellows to focus completely on their Open Research project, and fully dedicate a day of your working week without the distractions of other responsibilities. Fellows are funded and empowered to pursue their own interests whilst making a valuable contribution to the wider academic world. Fellowship opportunities are open to all Academic, Professional and Technical Services colleagues across the University.
Context – why did we launch the Open Research Fellowship Programme?
Ahead of the launch of the Office for Open Research we consulted the research community about priorities for the University’s Open Research Programme. In this consultation the development of Open Research training was identified as a key priority. This need was reiterated in the results of a national survey by the UK Reproducibility Network, which identified gaps in provision for Open Research skills development. Support from the Research England Advancing Research Culture Fund has allowed the development of a full Fellowship programme to help address this.
Meet the Open Research Fellows
We sought applications from passionate individuals keen to explore the different elements of Open Research that they found most engaging. Following submission of project proposals, shortlisting and interview by a panel drawn from members of the University’s Open Research Strategy Group (ORSG), eight Fellows were appointed for the period 2023-24 (three Fellows worked collaboratively on one project); and five for 2024-25. Each fellow works to develop their own Open Research project and provides domain expertise inputting into the Open Research Programme.
Open Research Fellows 2024-25
Matthew Parkes, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health
Project title: Towards ‘Better Coding Practice’: Improving Transparency & Reproducibility in Clinical Trial Analytical Code using Open Science Principles.
“I'm Matt, a Research Fellow in Biostatistics based at the Centre for Biostatistics. I'm a statistician with an interest in clinical trials, particularly applying Open Research principles to regulated clinical trials. These trials often involve challenges related to privacy, commercial interests, and other pressures, which can hinder the process of making research more open.
My project focuses on enhancing the openness and transparency of clinical trials, as well as developing accessible teaching and learning resources to encourage the adoption of these practices in various institutions and units. I am particularly interested in employing Literate Programming approaches to make research reports and their underlying code more transparent and reusable.”
Ellen Poliakoff, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
Project title: Sharing principles of transparent and responsible research with patients and the public: coproduced resources and training.
“I’m Ellen Poliakoff, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. I have expertise in involving people with Parkinson's and autistic people in research in the Body Eyes and Movement (BEAM) lab, as well as in incorporating other open research practices such as pre-registration and data sharing. My project aims to share open research practices with the public and PPI (Patient and Public Involvement) volunteers by developing resources and training. I will co-create the resources with several PPI volunteers, consult with Expert by Experience groups, and conduct a wider survey of PPI volunteers to inform the development of these resources.”
Murilo Marinho, Faculty Science and Engineering
Project title: Open Executable Books in Robotics.
“I'm Murilo, a Lecturer in Robotics at the School of Engineering. My project focuses on creating open executable books for robotics, aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice. By integrating theoretical concepts (equations etc) with practical implementation (including coding), I aim to optimise the learning experience. As I develop this content, I will establish best practices for open executable books and work to disseminate these practices within the department, school, university, and beyond.”
Hannah Long, Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
Project title: Developing a Data Note guide for qualitative research datasets (D’NOTE)
“I'm Hannah Long, a Research Associate in Health Inequalities (with a background in Health Psychology) based in the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work. My project focuses on developing and supporting open data practices for qualitative health researchers. I will co-design a Data Note guide specifically for qualitative research datasets. Data Notes are scientific articles that describe open, publicly accessible research datasets in a way that allows others to understand and reuse the data. Currently, these templates are only available for quantitative datasets, so I'll be looking to develop a suitable version for qualitative datasets. To achieve this, I will collaborate with a wide group of experts, forming a network to help me spread the word!”
Georgia Vesma
Project title: Boundless Opportunities: tools for open cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“I'm Georgia, a Research Support professional in Humanities. My project, Boundless Opportunities, will explore the intersections between Open Research and interdisciplinarity. I will investigate best practices for co-authorship, cross-disciplinary peer review, and open methods approaches in research involving multiple disciplines.”
Open Research Fellows 2023-24
Alex Henderson
Senior Technical Specialist and Digital Systems Architect in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Project aim: To develop the FAIRSpectra initiative, strengthening the FAIR publication of data relating to chemical analysis, and enabling improved data sharing. FAIRSpectra aims to tackle issues with interoperability and reusability in two areas of activity: open file formats and metadata vocabulary.
Saskia Lawson-Tovey
Data scientist in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
Project aim: To investigate knowledge and understanding of Research Data Management (RDM) and FAIR principles, and perceived counter/incentives towards RDM/FAIR, among researchers using sensitive health data. Saskia plans to conduct qualitative research on researchers working with musculoskeletal data, in one of the largest research groups using sensitive health data at The University of Manchester.
Anne Cotton
Research Associate in the Faculty of Science and Engineering
To produce a simple, accessible online resource that promotes and teaches open research practices for studies of microbiomes (the bacteria, fungi and other microbes which inhabit an environment). This will include information on using open-source software to process DNA sequences and best practices for uploading data and code to relevant online repositories to make them FAIR.
Luis Ospina-Forero
Presidential Fellow in Data Science in the Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester's Research Data Repository Figshare can host code, datasets, and other different outputs openly and privately. Figshare integrates with GitHub, a platform which allows dynamic open hosting of code. Luis will be focusing on coordinating test cases for Figshare and GitHub integration, and evaluating the practical viability of a university wide GitHub plan.
Hawys Williams (joint project with Samantha Franklin)
Manager for the Centre for Engagement & Involvement in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
Samantha Franklin (joint project with Hawys Williams)
Social Responsibility Project Officer in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health
Kay Gallacher (contributor to PPIE project)
Public Contributor and Co-Chair of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health's PPIE Forum.
Project aim: This joint project will build on the fellows' current involvement in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE). They aim to improve the existing Charter Mark, a tool developed by the PPIE forum in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, which recognises good quality and best practices in PPIE among researchers.
Joanne Pennock
Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health
Project aim: Provision of plain English summaries is increasingly a priority for funders, especially in the areas of health research. As part of a broader strategy to increase Public and Patient involvement in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, this project aims to enable publication of lay summaries of grants awarded and PhD theses.
Find out more
Stay updated: We will be posting the latest updates on our Fellows' case studies and project outcomes via our Open Research news and events blog as work progresses.
Get involved: If you have any questions or are interested in applying for the next cohort of fellows, please don't hesitate to reach out to the team: Contact us