Broadcast: Events
Why Being Open Makes Sense: perspectives from different disciplines
Join this session to hear from researchers across a range of disciplines as they share how open research practices can strengthen impact, improve effectiveness, and transform the way they work.
Thursday 18 June 2026, 11am–12pm
Register here: https://buytickets.at/universityofsussexlibrart/2188602
Event description
What does “open research” look like in practice across different fields?
Openness in research can strengthen impact, improve transparency, and reshape research processes. It can also contribute to greater knowledge equity and, ultimately, social justice, while raising important challenges and considerations.
The Library’s Research and Open Scholarship team invite you to join this session, bringing together researchers from a range of disciplines to share how open research practices influence their work. The speakers will reflect on both the opportunities and challenges of working openly, drawing on their experiences across different fields.
The event offers an opportunity to hear real-world perspectives and consider how open approaches might apply across disciplines.
Speakers
-
Danny Millum, Library, Culture and Heritage
Danny Millum is the Heritage Collections Engage Librarian in the Division of Library, Culture and Heritage, University of Sussex, helping manage and promote the library’s print collections. He previously jointly led the 3-year Wellcome-funded British Library for Development Studies Legacy Collection Project, through which this unique collection of Global South materials (which includes Tricontinental) was catalogued and preserved. He currently teaches on a variety of modules in the faculties of Global Studies and Media, Arts and Humanities, with a particular interest in how the library’s collections of radical printed ephemera can shed light on alternative futures both past and future. -
Dexter Shepherd, School of Engineering and Informatics
Dexter Shepherd is a robotics researcher who has recently submitted his PhD on tactile sensing for robotic locomotion. His work focuses on efficient robotics, embedded machine learning, and improving the accessibility and reproducibility of research through open-source hardware and software. Alongside developing tactile sensing systems and contributing toward standardized testing methods for fair comparison in robotics research, he advocates for designing systems that are affordable, replicable, and capable of running on low-cost hardware. -
Oliver Collins, School of Psychology
Oliver is a BSc Psychology student currently on placement as a Research Assistant at the Reality Bending Lab, aiming for a career as a research psychologist. Oliver's academic interests include perception, psychophysiology, and metascience. Oliver is particularly curious about the development and democratisation of software aiding research in psychophysiology, where they have a side project in creating human-computer interfaces harnessing bodily signals. -
Dr Paul Gilbert, School of Global Studies
Paul Gilbert is a Reader in Development, Justice and Inequality at the University of Sussex’s School of Global Studies. His research examines how economic and financial systems shape global inequalities, with a particular focus on the role of finance, investment regimes and development practices in sustaining or challenging structures of injustice. Alongside his research, Gilbert has held a range of academic and leadership roles at Sussex and beyond, and contributes to the wider field as an editor for Economy & Society, a series editor for Bristol University Press, and a member of the Steering Committee for Diversifying and Decolonising Economics.
Format
This is an online session featuring short presentations from researchers across disciplines, followed by an open Q&A session. Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions and reflections throughout the event.
About the facilitators
The Library Research Support team support researchers at all levels across the University. They offer bookable one-to-one sessions tailored to suit your specific research needs, run various group training workshops, and organise seminars and events to engage with the research community on campus.
Target audience
Researchers at all career stages across the university, including postgraduate researchers (PGRs), early career researchers (ECRs), and established academics from all disciplines, particularly those interested in open research practices and enhancing the impact and effectiveness of their work.
Summer of Research 2026
This event is part of the Summer of Research 2026, a two‑week festival of researcher‑led talks, workshops and events celebrating the breadth and impact of research at the University of Sussex. The festival brings together researchers, students and professional services colleagues to share ideas, build connections and explore opportunities for future collaboration.
Find out about and sign up for other exciting events here!