RESPIRE Fellowship

This is a guest blog post from Tapas K Mohanty, Informatics & Data Science Liaison Officer for the RESPIRE project, who recently dropped by for a visit. Tapas, who is based at the KEM Hospital Research Centre in Pune, India, was here on a RESPIRE Fellowship to meet with his Edinburgh-based RESPIRE colleagues. Of course, he was mainly here to hang out with the cool kids: viz. Research Data Support.

If that wasn’t exciting enough, Tapas was also one the many very amazing presenters at this year’s Edinburgh Open Research Conference. Amid the whirligig of fun and excitement, he found time to jot down some thoughts on what was a Very Good Day. These are they:  

Wednesday 29th May: a good start. Setting out for Pollock Halls, where the Open Research Conference was being held, I found Kitty Flynn, a RESPIRE colleague, on the same bus. Kitty was coming along to cheer me on during my presentation.

The conference opened with a thought-provoking Plenary Panel featuring Nick Wise, Rowena Lamb, Malcolm MacLeod, and Katie Nicoll Baines. Together, they explored the intersection of research culture change and Open Research. Key considerations included the delicate balance between policies and international collaboration. Notably, while discussing the legacy of racism in scholarly research institutions, the panel acknowledged its existence and advocated for a shift from blame-culture to accountability as the only way to effect real change.

Photo of the Plenary panel discussion with attendees in the foreground.

Plenary panel discussion – Photo credit: Tapas K Mohanty

Session One focused on Education, Skills, and Recognition. Lee Murphy opened the session with a technician’s viewpoint on the dominant academic perspective, which rarely credits technical support staff. Second was Haley Eckel, who described the introduction of Data Management Plan requirements for PhD students at the University of St Andrews. Third and last, Nik Tahirah Nik Hussin & Veronica Cano talked about the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).

Next came the lightning talks, with me as the first presenter. Stepping up to the microphone, my heart raced and my throat felt dry. Brittany (another presenter) reassured me. Nervously, I wondered if I could finish within 5 minutes. My subject was an Open-Source Hardware initiative to enhance MRI accessibility in India’s low-resource areas. Ignited by last year’s Open Research Conference, the project will be hosted by Pune’s KEM Hospital Research Centre with support from PTB, Berlin, and GOSH (Gathering for Open Science Hardware). Utilising open-source designs, the initiative seeks to expedite the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries in rural regions, ensuring essential medical technology is available wherever it’s needed.

The other speakers in this session were:

  • Nicola Osborne, ‘Nurturing responsible data practices in creative industries R&D through applied ethics and open research practices.’
  • Rachel Steeg, ‘Making iPSCs FFAIR.’
  • Tom Morley, ‘From compliance to culture: How can we address the barriers that are preventing a culture of Open Research in relation to Open Monographs?’
  • Dominic Hewett, ‘Humanities researchers’ perspectives towards scholarly communication practices’
  • Brittany Blankenship (on behalf of Kasia Banas), ‘See one, do one, teach one: Teaching Open Research Skills for Data-Driven Innovation in Health and Social Care.’

Stuart King opened the final session on Next Generation Metrics and Recognition with a talk on preprints and reimagined of peer review. Lucy Woolhouse followed, returning us  to the topic of credit and attribution. The legendary Marta Teperek came next, outlining the Netherlands’ strategic investment in Open Science, an investment that seeks to cultivate a research environment which prioritizes quality, equity, and inclusivity. Marisa De Andrade closed the session by challenging traditional research metrics through the lens of her new book on knowledge justice. She argued for methodologies that consider the lived experiences of marginalized communities and promote research that tackles inequalities.

The conference closed with a poster session in which presenters delivered one-minute, rapid-fire talks on their posters.

I can honestly say that this trip to attend the Open Research Conference will forever be in my memory. I will always remember the presentations and the people I was able to meet. It was an exciting day for new learning and it left the mark of an enriching experience.

Edinburgh Open Research Conference 2024

This is a guest blog post from Emma Wilson, Emma is a final year PhD student in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences. She is currently interning with the Library Open Research Team.

On 29th May 2024, we held the third annual Edinburgh Open Research Conference online and in person at the John McIntyre Conference Centre. Over 300 people attended the hybrid event, from Edinburgh and further afield, to listen to a jam-packed programme of talks and posters on all things open research.

This year’s theme was culture change, and thinking about how open research principles can steer us towards healthy and inclusive research environments.

Panel host Dominic and panel speakers Rowena, Nick, Katie, and Malcolm sit on a stage in front of the conference audience

Plenary panel – photo credit: Eugen Stoica

The events kicked off with a plenary panel featuring Nick Wise (University of Cambridge), Rowena Lamb, Malcolm Macleod, and Katie Nicoll Baines (all University of Edinburgh) discussing the ways in which we can drive healthy and sustainable culture change and how this applies in the context of open research.

Marisa de Andrade delivering her keynote

Marisa de Andrade delivering her keynote – photo credit: Eugen Stoica

Presentations and lightning talks touched on the topics of education and skills, research culture change, and next generation metrics. We heard from a diverse range of perspectives including technicians, researchers in both STEM and the humanities, and professional services staff. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) was a strong theme running throughout each of the presentations.

The keynote lecture was delivered by Marisa de Andrade on ‘The Madness of Metrics and Possibilities of Pause in Open Research’, which offered perspective on research metrics, what they really mean, and what really matters.

Maria Juliana Rodriguez Cubillos presenting her poster during the drinks reception

Poster session – Photo credit: Eugen Stoica

Following a busy day, the conference closed with a drinks reception and posters. Each presenter gave a quick-fire summary of their poster in a round of ‘Minute Madness’.

We want to thank everyone who attended the conference, our fantastic presenters, and of course our organisers Kerry Miller and Nel Coleman for making the day enjoyable and insightful. And if you missed it, be sure to come along next year!

Stay up to date on open research activities and future conference announcements by signing up to the Edinburgh Open Research Newsletter and joining our Edinburgh Open Research Initiative Microsoft Teams group.

Edinburgh Open Research Conference 2024

Join us on May 29th for the 2024 edition of the Open Research Conference. This year we are addressing the big challenge: culture change. It is not simply enough to facilitate open access and FAIR Data. We need to embed all aspects of Open Research into our everyday practices.

Join us to consider the broad themes of culture change, along with the role of next generation metrics, education, training and skills development in this process. We will also look to other contexts in which positive shifts in culture are actively taking place: EDI, healthy working lives, and research integrity. We ask what we can learn from these contexts, and how can we collaborate to make a more equitable and open research environment?

In addition to talks on the themes of research integrity, next generation metrics, and open research education & skills, there will be rapid-fire lightning talks, a poster session, and drinks reception along with plenty of opportunities to expand your network.

Registration for in-person attendance closes on May 19th and for online it’s May 24th, full details of the conference have been published.

If you would like to keep up with Open Research news, please sign up for the newsletter, and you can also follow Edinburgh Open Research on EventBrite to find out about our future events.

We look forward to welcoming you to the conference!

Kerry Miller,
Research Data Support Officer & Open Research Coordinator

 

Skills4EOSC fellowship

This is a guest blog post from Clara Parente Boavida, about her fellowship with the Research Data Service as part of a European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) project.

My name is Clara Parente Boavida and I work in the Research Support Office at Iscte-Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (Portugal). I applied for the first call of the Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme and between 11th March to 5th April I worked with an amazing team at Research Data Service at the University of Edinburgh.

The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme aims to address the need to promote and sustain professional roles dedicated to open research by supporting short-term secondments.

Among the three different types of fellowships, I have chosen a Research Data Support internship. This placement allowed me to actively participate in the day-to-day activities related to research data support, providing an immersive experience and a comprehensive understanding of research data management practices within the host institution.

I would like to congratulate the Skills4EOSC project for this initiative and thank everyone who has helped to make this opportunity possible. I’m grateful for the support of my institution (Vice-Rector Jorge Costa and Carina Cunha), I’m grateful to Robin Rice for the extraordinary welcome and I’m grateful to all the people I’ve had the opportunity to talk to and interact with during this month.

“the essential is invisible to the eyes”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novel “The Little Prince”

Each week’s agenda was carefully prepared with my expectations and interests in mind. The University of Edinburgh has a busy life in terms of Research Data Management. Not only in collaboration with various services within the University, but also with the external community. This holistic view has made me reflect about the different services that Research Data Management intersects with. Success comes from healthy and effective relationships with different stakeholders.

Photo collage of Clara's activities in Edinburgh.

I was involved in the day-to-day activities of different members of the team, and each experience added something new. I had the opportunity to attend face-to-face events, one-to-one meetings, kick-off meetings, as well as online meetings and events. I also took part in internal team meetings and service meetings. Informal activities were carefully planned to allow the Research Data Service team to interact with each other and to allow other teams to be involved.

I had one-to-one meetings with each member of the Research Data Support team about: DataShare, DataVaut, training programme, DMP, DMPonline, Research Data Management Policy and Metrics. I had one-to-one meetings with members of other teams: Open Research, Scholarly Communications, Research Information Systems, Digital Research Services, and Edinburgh Research Office.

I attended a number of events in person: Digital Research Lunchtime Seminar: How to interpret and analyse your data efficiently; Open Research Scotland Meeting; Open Science Framework Workshop Modules 1, 2, 3 & 4; Ethics & Data Management at the Childlight GDF Residency; Technomoral Conversations: Who is Responsible for Responsible AI?; Library Tour for Staff, and Digital Research Lunchtime Seminar: Manage, publish, share and preserve.

I also participated in online events: Updating the DataCite Metadata Scheme webinar; UK Research Network (UKRN) webinar on Indicators for Open Research; UKRN Indicators Pilot 2 online meeting; UKRN Pilot 1 kick-off meeting; Writing a Data management plan, for the Health in Social Science School; and Working with Personal and Sensitive Data. I also had the opportunity to organise an online meeting with Mike Wallis (Research Services, IT Infrastructure) and the IT Services of Iscte to answer questions about DataStore.

In terms of personal contributions, I wrote suggestions for updates to MANTRA Unit 1, part of an open access Research Data Management Training course. I had the opportunity to demonstrate the interoperability process between CRIS systems and OpenAIRE, and also how to link EC funded projects to publications and datasets.

Finally, I designed a Research Data Management Roadmap for the Iscte. This roadmap intends to guide the work to be developed over the next three years towards the implementation of a RDM Service for the Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. It incorporates lessons learned during the Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme at the University of Edinburgh. It is also aligned with the Human Resources Excellence in Research Award (HRS4R) principles for researchers, which is a mechanism through which the European Commission seeks to ensure that concrete steps are put in place by institutions to enhance working conditions for researchers across Europe, as set out in the European Charter and Code.