After a brief hiatus, the Library’s Sussex Research Hive Seminar Series is back for another round of engaging and thought provoking research discussions, with cross disciplinary appeal.

In 2011, research in the UK was coming under increasing pressure from funding cuts, technological changes and expectations from government and other stakeholders, and the Library established this series to provide a space to ask what this means for researchers at Sussex. Now, a decade later and research in the UK continues to face these same challenges, while also navigating a host of new obstacles and opportunities.

The series is funded by SAGE as part of the Library's programme of support for researchers, and features a number of high-profile external experts. This year we’ll be welcoming colleagues from cOAlition S, Jisc, University of Cambridge’s ThinkLab and Research England as well as representatives of the research community within Sussex.

The programme begins with a timely discussion about connecting researchers in digital spaces, exploring how we can foster stimulating professional relationship while maintaining digital wellbeing. Liverpool John Moores Research Librarian, Katherine Stephan, will explain how she was inspired to bring together her research community by Café Scientifique, and the ThinkLab’s  Tyler Shores will share thoughts from his research on academic social media and digital distractions.

After the Easter break, Sally Rumsey, Open Access expert at Jisc, and Professor Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of cOAlition S, will be discussing the impact of the Rights Retention Strategy and considering how the changes to rights retention for authors will affect the future dissemination of research. This will be followed in May with a deep dive into responsible metrics, with Dr Lizzie Gadd, founder of the Bibliomagician blog, looking at recent policy changes by UK funders, and Professor Robin Banerjee talking about work being carried out by Sussex and our commitment to DORA.

In June, we’ll be taking the long view and looking ahead to the next REF (and beyond), Dr Catriona Firth, Head of REF policy at Research England and Professor Alis Oancea, Philosophy of Education and Research Policy at University of Oxford, will consider what the future holds for research assessment.

Thanks to a year of Zoom, we are delighted to be able to open the series up to anyone engaged in, supporting or curious about the research process. For details of the full programme please visit: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/research/seminarsandevents/seminars-2021

Or, please use the links below to sign up for specific sessions:

Digital communities: connecting researchers at a distance

Tuesday 30th March, 2pm-3.30pm

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Own it: The impact of rights retention

Tuesday 20th April, 2pm-3.30pm

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Exploring DORA: responsible metrics, researcher evaluation and you

Monday 24th May, 2pm-3.30pm

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Thank you, next: the future of research assessment

Wednesday 9th June, 2pm-3.30pm

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