Open Science Workshop: Professionalising data, software, and infrastructure support to transform open science

As part of this year’s UCL Open Science Festival, the UCL STEP-UP team hosted a small hybrid workshop exploring the skills, services, and technical support needed to enable open research. The session brought together a mix of researchers and Research and Technical Professionals (RTPs), with expertise spanning research data, software, and computing infrastructure. Despite a niche topic and a tight promotion window, the discussion was wide-ranging and insightful. Interactive Mentimeter slides helped surface diverse perspectives from attendees.  

A few key themes emerged. We talked a lot about data accessibility and reusability, how repositories should follow FAIR principles, and the need for more awareness about how to make data genuinely reusable. There are still psychological barriers to sharing, and time and funding constraints make things harder. People felt that better infrastructure, clearer guidance, and improved communication would make a big difference. There was a sense that RTPs take on informal ‘data champion’ roles, but without much recognition or support. More integration across departments, and clearer career paths for RTPs, came up as big gaps. 

One big takeaway was that training and support come too late. By the time data is ready to share, it is already too late to fix missing documentation or poor file naming. Everyone concluded that both researchers and RTPs need to start earlier during experiment planning and make space for open science in grant proposals. When it came to grant proposals, the discussion emphasised the importance of open science considerations from the outset. While there weren’t many specific strategies mentioned beyond encouraging early conversations with data professionals and supporting strong data management plans, the consensus was that open science needs to be framed as an integral part of research planning, not an afterthought. A centralised model combining open science experts with local domain champions could help, especially if supported by better institutional communication.