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With these awards, we want to recognise and celebrate all UCL students and staff who embrace, advance, and promote open science.
About the awards
The UCL Open Science and Scholarship Awards are a joint programme between the UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship and the local chapter of the UK Reproducibility Network. First run in 2023, these awards seek to highlight exceptional areas of practice and support for Open Science across the university. This programme is now in its second year and details of how you can nominate a colleague or student or submit your own work for consideration are below. To date, UCL has been a pioneer in promoting open science practices, including Open Access Publishing, Open Data and Software, Transparency, Reproducibility, and other Open Methodologies, as well as the creation and use of Open Educational Resources, Citizen Science, Public Involvement, Co-production and Communication.
Who is eligible?
All UCL students (undergraduate, postgraduate), PhD students, and staff from any department/discipline, including professional services staff, can apply or be nominated.
Application and nomination
You can apply or nominate someone else for the award by completing the online form. We have kept the form as simple as possible. You will be asked to briefly describe your/the open science and scholarship activity as well as its impact with a maximum of 350 words.
Applications for 2024 have now closed. Please watch this space for further information, or follow us on social media for updates.
Key dates
Key dates for the next round of the Open Science and Scholarship Awards will be announced in early 2025
Award categories
Awards are usually made across a number of categories. Updated categories for the next awards will be announced in early 2025. See below for information about past awards and their categories.
Evaluation criteria
All applications are assessed by a panel of Local UKRN and OOSS team members, and past award winners using a double-blind methodology to ensure a fair outcome. The following criteria are used to review the applications/nominations:
Relative to the person’s career stage…
- How innovative is the activity (e.g., introducing new activities rather than replicating existing ones, developing novel open datasets rather than extending an existing one)?
- How big of an impact has the activity achieved (e.g., number of people who use/cited the tool, number of people who attend the event, type and number of subsequent activities that were inspired by the activity)?
Prizes
- Winners in each category will be awarded 100GBP as a cash prize as well as a certificate. All winners will be invited to briefly present their research at the awards ceremony in Open Access Week.
- Each category will also name up to two Honourable Mentions that will receive a certificate and be invited to the awards.
Past awards
2024
- Awards
Key dates
- Application deadline: Sunday 01 September 2024.
- Results communicated: Monday 30 September 2024.
An award ceremony will take place during Open Access Week in the third week of October 2024.
Award categories
Awards were made in five categories:
- Activities led by undergraduate or postgraduate students
- Activities led by non-academic staff
- Activities led by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open publishing
- Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open-source software/analytical tools
- Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Advocating for open science/community building
- Winners
The winners of the Open Science and Scholarship Awards were announced on 02 October 2024 on the Open@UCL Blog.
The Awards Ceremony and presentations were held during Open Access Week with the event taking place on Wednesday 23 October.