The York Open Research Awards provide an inclusive opportunity to highlight projects and initiatives across all disciplines which engage with, reflect upon or advocate for open research practices and principles. We are celebrating case studies from across our research community, in particular work which encourages dialogue and broader thinking about open research and its implementation. The 2023 awards have been organised in collaboration between the University Open Research Advocates, Operations and Strategy Groups, with support from Research England Enhancing Research Culture funding.
Entrants were invited to submit a brief case study reflecting upon how open research practices and principles are embedded in the work, and any benefits or challenges encountered or dealt with along the way. Our judging panel focused on recognising ECR-led projects from each academic faculty, and additional prizes were offered to other projects they felt were deserving of recognition. Full case studies for a selection of projects are now available in our Open Research in Practice case studies series.
2023 Awardees
In alphabetical order by submission title
Enhancing transparency when working with existing data: a case study examining reading comprehension difficulties in a large-scale birth cohort
Dr Emma James, Lecturer, Psychology; Paul Thompson (University of Warwick); Lucy Bowes (University of Oxford); Kate Nation (University of Oxford)
Reflecting on barriers to transparency and addressing some of the challenges and surprises encountered whilst working towards openness in the context of a secondary data analysis.
Finding solutions for perinatal loneliness in collaboration with people with lived and practitioner experience
Dr Ruth Naughton-Doe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School for Business & Society; International Centre for Mental Health Social Research: Prof Martin Webber, Professor of Social Work, School for Business & Society; Dr Beth Casey, Research Associate, School for Business & Society
Embedding the principles of open research throughout a project focusing on underserved communities, with an aim to maximise reach and impact, invite collaborations and improve the research strategy.
Knowledge Exchange Project with Scarborough & District Civic Society
Kirsty Ryder, Postgraduate Researcher, Archaeology
Partnering with a local organisation and working with non-academic audiences to emphasise and celebrate involvement in the women's suffrage movement, resulting in the installation of two commemorative plaques for International Women's Day 2024.
The CellPhe toolkit for cell phenotyping using time-lapse imaging and pattern recognition
Laura Wiggins, PhD student, Biology; Dr Will Brackenbury, Senior Lecturer, Biology (co-supervisor); Prof Julie Wilson, Mathematics (co-supervisor); Dr Peter O'Toole, Head of Imaging and Cytometry, Biology (co-supervisor); Stuart Lacy, Research Software Engineer; Killian Murphy, Research Software Engineer; Alice Lord, previous MSc student in Brackenbury lab, Biology
Developing an easy-to-use and accessible open source toolkit for the characterisation of cellular phenotypes from time-lapse images, accompanied by documentation to enable reuse by researchers of all backgrounds.
Highly Commended
Archive All Areas: Music, Memory, People and Places - a collaboration between the StreetLife York, InterMusE and Our Place projects, led by Prof. Rachel Cowgill (ACT) with Chris Sherrington (York Music Venue Network) and Prof. Alan Dix (Swansea University), Dr Tom Collins and Dr Liam Maloney (ACT), Dr Victoria Hoyle (IPUP), Dr Charlotte Armstrong (InterMusE/Our Place), Lizzie Hodgson (StreetLife/Our Place), Andy Egerton (StreetLife/Our Place) and Dr Frankie Perry (InterMusE) - Yorgos Paschos, PhD Candidate, Archaeology; Dr Jennifer Chubb, Lecturer, Sociology (PhD supervisor); Suzy Harrison.
FAIRing Cloud-SPAN: modelling and teaching open research practices in environmental 'omics - Evelyn Greeves, Research Skills Trainer (Cloud-SPAN project), Biology; Emma Rand, Senior Lecturer, Biology (Project Lead); Prof James Chong, Biology (Project Lead); Dr Sarah Forrester, Research Associate, Biology; Annabel Cansdale, Bioinformatician, Biology; Jorge Buenabad-Chavez, Research Trainer, Biology; Sarah Dowsland, Biology (Project Manager)
NonLinearProg - a Julia package for Non Linear Programming - Simon Weber, Lecturer, Economics and Related Studies; Pauline Corblet (University of Luxembourg)
Note taking in a native or non-native language in bilingual students - Amy Canham, MSci student, Psychology; Dr Angela de Bruin, Lecturer, Psychology; Marion Coumel, Postgraduate Researcher, Psychology; Juliana Manolova, Volunteer Research Assistant
Revealing the strengths and weaknesses of generative AI for sound and music - Tom Collins, Lecturer, School of Arts and Creative Technologies; Music Computing and Psychology Lab, including PhD students Zongyu Yin, Adrián Barahona-Ríos, Jemily Rime, and Kyle Worrall
The importance of consolidating perceptual experience and contextual knowledge in face recognition - Kira Noad, Postgraduate Researcher, Psychology; Prof Timothy Andrews, Psychology; Dr David Watson, Research Associate, Psychology
Copyright notice
Entrants retain all copyright ownership and intellectual property rights to their work. Project summaries are adapted (with permission) from submissions provided by entrants. No further copying is permitted without permission from the researchers except where allowed under the terms of a public reuse licence where indicated at source, or as permitted by legal exception.