Open research practices can benefit students, researchers, and the research community by improving the quality, transparency, and accessibility of research findings. Many groups such as the Edinburgh Open Research Initiative (EORI) and the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT) aim to promote the integration of open research practices into university curriculums.

Senior year high school pupils preparing to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) of Social Sciences subjects at university will often conduct their first research project as part of an Advanced Higher course, Nuffield Research Placement, or CREST Award. We have recently received funding to develop resources aimed at introducing S4-S6 Scottish High School pupils to open research practices. Already there is keen interest from Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC), who run Nuffield Research Placements in Scotland, to make these resources available to all pupils completing placements.

We are currently looking for a small group of UoE students (undergraduate or postgraduate) to assist in developing two short animation scripts on open research topics and an interactive activity. Students will be reimbursed for contributing to the project.

Students should be knowledgeable on open research topics (although you don’t have to be an expert!). Science communication experience is not required, although we will encourage all student volunteers to sign up to the STEM Ambassadors programme.

We are not able to use our funding to reimburse staff members, but UoE staff are more than welcome to register their interest in our project and help out with developing or assuring the quality of our resources.

This project is funded by alumni and friends of the University of Edinburgh through the Student Experience Grant scheme.