The University of Sheffield is fortunate in having Adam Partridge as its Open Research Coordinator and Administrator – ORCA – within the UKRN Open Research Programme. Adam joined Sheffield after managing the Brain Stimulation Lab at CUBRIC, Cardiff University where he was also the UKRN Local Network Lead. Before that, he did a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging at the University of York, with specific interests in brain stimulation and auditory processing.
He first learned about open research during his MSc and he used some open research practices such as preregistration and preprinting during his PhD. Like many early career researchers, he could see issues with the academic system and open research was gaining some traction as a way of addressing these issues. This was initially mainly with enthusiasts; these ways of working were not recognised more widely. He saw the ORCA role as a way of speeding up this process. He was familiar with the UKRN from his local network lead role and also saw this as an opportunity to build relationships across the network.
Adam’s overall role at Sheffield is the Open Research Training Lead. This encompasses his work on the UKRN Open Research Programme and local open research activities. There is therefore a lot of synergy between his ORCA activities and local activities. Read more about Adam’s role.
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