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Jenni Adams

Based in the University Library, I’m the TUoS Open Research Manager, leading projects and activities aimed at informing and advocating around open research, and supporting researchers who are interested in increasing their use of open practices to do so. The projects I lead also often involve an element of metaresearch, or research on research, and this allows me to use open practices myself - sharing data and methodological materials and publishing in open access journals, for example.

Being involved in the Open Research Champions network means I can talk to researchers across the university about the needs and priorities of colleagues in their area in relation to open research. It allows me to find out more about practices and support needs across the institution, to deepen my understanding of what open research means in different contexts, and to benefit from a wide range of perspectives from different members of the group. This, in turn, means that I can do my job better, responding more relevantly to the needs of our research communities and helping to support the development of our open research culture.

Tamara Beretić Vaci

I work in the Academic Programmes Office, part of the central Professional Services team, where I primarily analyse textual data collected from student surveys. I joined the Open Research Champions (ORC) network to promote open code and encourage good practices around freely sharing information across professional services teams. 

In my ORC role, I am focused on creating a knowledge base—a shared repository for open code and best practices for data-driven teams across the university. This will be hosted on GitHub, where I plan to launch a small website featuring resources such as SQL code, DAX measures, Power BI templates, R and Python scripts, and guidance on best practices, digital accessibility, useful links, and points of contact. This initiative aligns with the FAIR principles of the Open Research Framework: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability, fostering collaboration and supporting transparent, efficient workflows.

Sabrina Burr

I am a cognitive scientist who is broadly interested in understanding academic achievement and the cognitive processes that support achievement. My research predominantly focuses on mathematical cognition, where I aim to understand the misconceptions students develop during mathematics instruction and design interventions and tools to refute these misconceptions. To untangle the complex relations among cognitive, affective, and developmental factors related to learning and achievement, I use a variety of methods, including behavioural paradigms, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging (i.e. functional near-infrared spectroscopy; fNIRS), and statistical techniques (e.g. Bayesian analyses, structural equation modelling, latent curve modelling, and machine learning).

I decided to become an Open Research Champion so that I could meet others who were interested in promoting open research and partake in training opportunities that would not only enhance my understanding of open research, but also let me share newly learned knowledge with students, colleagues, and collaborators. I aim to incorporate open research practices into my research, through preregistering studies, sharing preprints, and using open-source software for analyses and stimuli presentation. I also promote open research in my teaching and supervision, lecturing on open research practices, employing open educational resources and open-source software, and designing and delivering open research workshops. Recently, within the School of Psychology, I have created a Google website where I can share best practices, events, and news related to open research. I think open research practices are imperative to conducting meaningful scientific studies. 

Shuolin He

I am a PhD student in the School of Education, where my research focuses on exploring teachers’ perspectives on digital technology in early years education. My work investigates how educators perceive, adapt to, and integrate digital tools in early childhood settings, with a focus on equity, pedagogy, and professional development.

I volunteered to become an Open Research Champion to advocate for transparency and accessibility in academic work, particularly in education. Early years educators often face barriers to accessing cutting-edge research, and I believe open practices can bridge gaps between academia and classroom practice.

I engage in open research by prioritising ethical data sharing, using open-access resources, and advocating for transparent methodologies. These practices promote inclusivity and allow for a broader impact on early years education research.

Anastasia Karpunina

Researcher, Department of Sociological Studies

I hold a PhD in Social Work, and my research focuses on the role of VR and AI in social work education. I am particularly interested in developing AI avatars and exploring how these technologies can transform social services, enhancing both support for vulnerable groups and professional practice for social workers.

I strongly believe that open science is essential for advancing knowledge and driving collective progress across disciplines. As an Open Research Champion, I am committed to promoting transparency, collaboration, and accessibility in research. I actively engage in open research practices, including open data and open peer review. These approaches not only make knowledge more widely available but also accelerate innovation and enhance the reliability of research findings. Through my role, I aim to encourage others to embrace these principles, ensuring that scientific progress benefits everyone, regardless of their background or resources.

Lilith Roberts 

(She/her)

I’m a mixed methods social psychologist with a particular interest in behaviour change, intergroup bias, cyberpsychology, social identity, and widening participation. I am currently a PhD student and my PhD project is investigating patient-led interpersonal confrontation as a method to reduce weight stigma in healthcare.

I decided to become an Open Research Champion because I believe that, in the face of the replication crisis and falling rates of trust in science, Open Research practices are pivotal to retain trust and prevent a second replication crisis in social psychology. As part of my commitment to Open Research, I have aimed to ensure that all my research is pre-registered. I’ve found in doing this that there are benefits to pre-registration outside of Open Research as well - as it has allowed me to identify and resolve potential issues with the research as early on in the research process as possible.

Neil Shephard

I am a Research Software Engineer and as such don’t have a specific research area of my own, instead I get to play in other peoples gardens! I’m primarily focused on improving the openness and quality of research software so that it is easier to maintain and develop not just for the researchers themselves but also for other potential collaborators who may find it useful. As such I strive to ensure that software projects I work on meet the FAIR for Research Software Principles.

In addition to my interest in making software open I am a strong proponent of Reproducible Research undertaken in an open manner. This is important not just to me but others as open and reproducible research improves confidence in the results and claims that are made based on research. It's great to see the growth and gradual shift in these directions in working practices and as such I’m happy to champion the movement and act as a point of contact to share my knowledge and experience.

Alex Stevens

Professor of Criminology

School of Law

I aspire to follow open research practices in my work on illicit drug policy, crime, and public health, and to help colleagues do the same in their research. I got interested in open research because I believe that the process of creating and sharing knowledge should be collaborative and inclusive. This means that we need to be transparent about what we do and how we do it, and to minimise the barriers that prevent people seeing, contributing to, and using our research.

In my own work, I try and do this by publishing in places where people can read my research for free, and where profits are not siphoned off to the shareholders of private publishers. I am also trying to be more transparent about registering and publishing protocols for research projects, sharing data where possible, and being more transparent about the processes we go through to create research findings. I can’t claim to be completely open in my research yet (e.g. I find it hard to share qualitative interview data), but this is a journey we can all contribute to.

Lesley Uttley

Through my work, which advocates for research integrity using metascience, I am committed to open research. Using the privilege of my UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) fellowships, I have focused on evaluating the conduct of published systematic reviews and developing a framework to promote inclusivity, transparency, rigour and objectivity across research. My work primarily scrutinises the conduct of the gold-standard in evidence based medicine through a living systematic review on the problems with systematic reviews. Additionally, as a guest editor for a special issue on research integrity for the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology I worked with global experts to publish a review on research culture and drew upon my educational background in Psychology to explore biases in the evidence ecosystem. This work stresses the importance of researcher assessment in creating healthier research culture. 

Beyond research integrity, I am involved in a multi-institutional ESRC funded project on behavioural research (BR-UK) and I'm also working on a project with colleagues in my own department (SCHARR) on the use of expert opinion as a form of evidence within health technology assessment. I am also an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. I actively promote equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in research, and am an EDI Fellow on the NIHR funded ºù«Ӱҵ Biomedical Research Centre, a role aiming to improve accessibility and participation in health research for underrepresented groups. My work is guided by the principles of open science, striving to make research more transparent, methodologically sound, and inclusive to strengthen the evidence base which informs decision making globally.

Zuzanna Zagrodzka

I am a PhD student at the School of Biosciences, working on open science within the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. I joined the Open Research Champions because I wanted to stay up to date with the open research initiatives happening across the university and wanted to learn more about embracing open research. Another reason for me was to find a community of like-minded people who share similar values. I hope to continue working in the field of open research after completing my PhD, so gaining experience and understanding the challenges faced by researchers in different areas is both relevant and fascinating to me. 

I engage in all aspects of open science, aiming to make my research as transparent and reproducible as possible. I also actively engage in conversations about open research with my colleagues.