The GW4 Alliance is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 GW4 Open Research Prize, celebrating outstanding contributions to open research practices across the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.
Now in its second year as a cross-alliance initiative, the Prize aims to shine a light on researchers and teams who are leading the way in creating more transparent, accessible, reproducible and visible research across GW4.
The Prize, which was delivered as part of GW4 Open Research Week, was first introduced by the University of Bristol in 2021 to celebrate and recognise the excellent work of researchers in making their research more accessible to all, thereby increasing its potential impact.
From 2023 onward, the Prize was extended to researchers from across all four GW4 Alliance universities; it was led, for this year, by the University of Bath.
Researchers from all disciplines from across the Alliance were invited to submit applications, which demonstrated the listed open research practices, across two prize categories: Widening Reach and Improving Quality. The shortlisted applicants were then selected to attend a cross-Alliance awards event, where they presented their entries to members of the public, academics and representatives from across the four universities.
In total, 47 entries were received across the two categories, with the winning entries as follows:
- Improving Quality: Rachel Tunnicliffe, University of Bristol - OpenGHG: A community platform for greenhouse gas data science.
Dr Katherine Button, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, and representative of the judging panel, said: “ The panel were deeply impressed with how Rachel was able to evidence the impact of the project and showcase how open research practices improved the quality and reach of the science. By using open research practices, Rachel and the wider team were able to bridge the gap between public engagement and citizen science, enabling the generation of a high-quality, open access, database for greenhouse gas science, already having tangible impacts across Europe.”
- Widening Reach: Andrea Wallace and Francesca Farmer University of Exeter, Law, in partnership with Michael Weinberg, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, NYU Law School - GLAM-E Lab: Building more sustainable networks, pathways and infrastructures for open access to cultural heritage collections.
Dr Button, said: “The GLAM-E Lab partners with smaller and less well-resourced cultural institutions and community organisations to research emerging issues in open access and design innovative strategies for the cultural sector. Their work has bridged the gap between client representation and research-informed advocacy to produce more sustainable and scalable open access policies and guidance for low-cost uptake by others.
“The panel were deeply impressed by the innovation of this interdisciplinary endeavour to open up cultural heritage collections, using legal frameworks and legal support to enable smaller less well-resourced organisations to open up their collections for researchers and the public.”
Professor Julie Barnett, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Bath, said: “It was an absolute privilege to host this year’s GW4 Open Research Week Prize. We witnessed an outstanding calibre of entries across both categories, making the judging process extremely challenging. I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to both of our winning entries, and also highly commend our runners-up. The variety and quality of the submissions received this year clearly shows the open research community at its best – collaborative, innovative, and committed to driving positive change in research culture.”
Shortlisted Runners Up
Improving Quality:
- Amy Heather, University of Exeter – Improving Reproducibility in Open Healthcare Simulation: Addressing Barriers and Promoting Best Practices
- Sindia Sosdian, University of Cardiff – MioOcean: Advancing Paleoclimate Science and Inclusivity with Miocene Temperature Data
- Josine Min, University of Bristol. – Exploiting the genetics of DNA Methylation Consortium infrastructure to uncover the role of DNA methylation in modifying disease risk
Widening Reach:
- Kishore Kumar Jagadeesan, University of Bath - Advancing FAIR and Open Research in Aquatic Water Fingerprinting: PERK for Pharmaceutical Monitoring
- Marc-Alban Millet, Cardiff University - Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry: creating a community led and run Diamond Open Access journal.
- Katerina Kaouri, Cardiff University - VIRIS: Simulating indoor viral transmission combining architectural design and people movement
To learn more about each of the entries, visit the GW4 YouTube channel and watch the GW4 Open Research Prize playlist, where you'll find presentations for each of the projects.
It was an absolute privilege to host this year’s GW4 Open Research Week Prize. We witnessed an outstanding calibre of entries across both categories, making the judging process extremely challenging.
I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to both of our winning entries, and also highly commend our runners-up.
The variety and quality of the submissions received this year clearly shows the open research community at its best – collaborative, innovative, and committed to driving positive change in research culture.”
