Delivering Open Research at Manchester: 2026 Q1

This update brings together highlights from the Office for Open Research’s work last Quarter and looks ahead to our most ambitious Quarterly Plan yet.

A little note on our naming convention for our Quarters: we've recalibrated our numbering to align with the University of Manchester's standard approach, with Q1 as the final Quarter of the calendar year.

Looking back: highlights from the last Quarter

The Office for Open Research completed 36 of its 50 planned Q3 activities and substantially progressed a further seven, resulting in 86% of our Quarterly Plan being delivered or substantially advanced.

Across our services, we published new Research Data Management resources, refreshed and expanded Research Indicators training, and prepared for major Open Access policy and funding developments. This included new eligibility criteria for the University Open Access Fund and support for researchers affected by changes to CRUK’s OA policy.

We also made important progress across our Open Research Programme of strategic priorities. Highlights included:

• completing the initial Open Access compliance audit to support preparation for REF 2029;
• finalising the QS Global Report and highly cited research analysis;
• securing legal approval for the Research Software Policy;
• beginning XML workflow testing for Manchester Open Research Environment (MORE);
• exploring a more sustainable model for Open Research Skills support;
• launching recruitment for the next Open Research Fellowship cohort; and
• progressing improvements to Open Research systems and enquiry triage.

This progress provides a strong foundation for our most ambitious Quarterly Plan so far. We've taken time out as a team to celebrate all the work we've delivered in recent months, and I'd like to say another big thank you to everyone in the OOR team for their hard work and dedication.

Looking ahead: our 2026 Q1 Quarterly Plan

Our 2026 Q1 Quarterly Plan, covering 28 September to 25 December 2026, includes 75 activities across our services and strategic Areas of Work – our highest number since introducing our new Operating Model. I believe this reflects the success of the Operating Model in helping us effectively manage capacity and drive progress on our Open Research goals.

Across our services, priorities include:

• Research Data Management: respond to the new UKRI research data policy; complete and validate the migration of eScholar datasets to Figshare; and explore emerging issues around AI, research ethics and RDM.
• Open Access: implement support for the new CRUK policy; further develop the University Open Access Fund framework; prepare for anticipated UKRI policy changes; launch the 2027 Monograph Competition; and improve a number of processes to enhance researcher support.
• Research Indicators: complete the OpenAlex feasibility study, launch Scival comms for staff groups, and undertake further engagement with Schools and staff groups.

In this Quarter we plan to progress our strategic Areas of Work through the following priority activities:

• strengthen REF 2029 Open Access compliance reporting and supporting metadata;
• progress global rankings and responsible metrics support, including Highly Cited Research analysis and our CoARA commitments;
• recruit and prepare to onboard the next Open Research Fellowship cohort;
• complete the review of the draft Research Software Policy;
• continue development, testing and governance of Manchester Open Research Environment (MORE); and
• advance work to Enhance the RDM Service,  and explore a recalibrated Open Research Skills model.

Our Open Research Management Portfolio will underpin this work through the next phase of our Enquiry Triage Wizard pilot; Open Research Systems development, updated OSF guidance; planning for an OOR LinkedIn pilot; creation of an N8 Open Research toolkit; and a new approach to capturing and recognising Quarterly service statistics.

The Quarterly Plan gives us a shared set of priorities while allowing us to respond to changing capacity, dependencies and emerging needs. UoM colleagues can follow our progress via our Sharepoint site, and we’ll report back at the end of the Quarter.

Find out more

• University of Manchester colleagues can see our full Quarterly Plan and progress made in recent Quarters via our Sharepoint site.
• Find more details of our strategic Open Research Programme including our seven Areas of Work via our website.
• You can also access our Open Research services via our website, and get in touch with us at any point.

Lucy May, Open Research Manager