Promoting a culture of Open Research at Lancaster University

NoWAL Open Research Exchange of Experience, University of Manchester 13th June 2019

Our colleagues at Manchester University Library hosted a NoWAL Exchange of Experience Workshop on 13 June 2019. The Research Group met to share how academic libraries in the North West promote Open Research.

We organised a one hour workshop to present our Open Research approach and introduce an interesting method from the business world.

Open Research at Lancaster University

We started by talking about drivers for Open Research and introduced Open Research activities we’ve tried so far at Lancaster University to engage our research community, e.g. Data Conversations, Open Research Cafes, and an online survey investigating perspectives on Open Research.  See slides for more information:

Thinking strategically: The Mission Model Canvas

The Mission Model Canvas is an adaptation of a strategic business planning tool called the Business Model Canvas. It is a visual chart for planning new projects. The method is used at Lancaster University by our colleagues from Work in Progress who help students and staff to develop business ideas.

Mission Model Canvas

We believe using a Canvas approach helps us develop an Open Research community in a holistic way considering all building blocks of setting up a new “Mission”.

Workshop using the canvas

So, after introducing the canvas we broke out into smaller groups to apply the Mission Model Canvas to building a community of Open Researchers at our own institutions.  It was a great opportunity to discuss how we were all supporting researchers and the Open Research agenda at various institutions, to compare our different approaches, our key partners and channels, and to discuss where potential difficulties may lie.

Workshop in full flow

During the activity we added our key thoughts to post-its: orange to highlight tips or solutions; pink to highlight potential issues or barriers we may come across.

See the completed canvases:

The activity highlighted how we should approach Open Research more holistically, with the Library being an important facilitator but mindful of the roles of other stakeholders.

Working with the Mission Model Cancas

The blank mission model canvas was made available so that the exercise could be repeated at home institutions. Please use the download to try it yourself!

Takeaway Thoughts

We tried to summarise our “top tips” of developing Open Research initiatives:

  • Apply the Mission Model Canvas to your own institution
  • Accept the challenges – not every initiative will succeed
  • Be ever mindful of your institution’s culture
  • Identify and support: allies, advocates and early adopters
  • Libraries are great matchmakers
  • Community should be the goal rather than compliance

By Louise Tripp, Hardy Schwamm and Joshua Sendall

 

Professional Services Conference 2019 (PSC19)

At PSC19 we called upon the expertise and experience of colleagues from across Professional Services to develop approaches to community building.

50 professional service colleagues

We started by providing some context for our community building use case. We outlined our team’s work in the areas of Research Data Management, Open Access, Research Citations and Analytics and Open Research. We shared what we’ve done to engage with researchers so far. We explained why we want to continue to develop a community of Open Researchers.

 The Mission Model Canvas

Continue reading Professional Services Conference 2019 (PSC19)

First Lancaster University Open Research Café 21 November 2018

Why have an Open Research Café?

During Data Conversations our researcher community demonstrated an interest in discussions that move beyond open data to broader discussions around open research paradigms and practices. The library explored possibilities with our Psychology department’s PROSPR (Promoting Open Science Practices) group about how we might provide a forum for those discussions. Enter the Open Research Café.

The Open Research Café is co-designed by PROSPR and the Library and will be a regular event built around the following principles:

  • Informal
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Community-led
  • Open to researchers and support staff from all levels
  • Facilitates discussions on different aspects of Open Research

What happened?

Continue reading First Lancaster University Open Research Café 21 November 2018

6th Data Conversations: Keep it, throw it… or lock it in the vault?

As the doors opened on our sixth Lancaster based Data Conversations and the smell of pizza drifted out, new and old faces joined our conversation about real life research data stories. We were lucky enough to have four engaging speakers, all of whom explained their experience of using data in different fields, and explored the long term value of their data which led to the question: ‘Keep it, throw it… or lock it in the vault?’

Continue reading 6th Data Conversations: Keep it, throw it… or lock it in the vault?