The Future is Open: An Open Research Symposium to Build Community Connections
Wednesday May 22, 2024
From 2:45pm to 3:00pm
Document
Recognizing the pivotal role of community engagement in advancing the research principles of open science, our presentation focuses on the organization and hosting of the inaugural Open Research Symposium. This event aimed to forge connections to build a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable campus community around open research topics such as open access, open data, etc. The symposium, “The Future is Open: Building an open research community at McGill”, brought together researchers, students, and practitioners from diverse disciplines to explore the transformative potential of open research practices. The symposium focused on catalyzing discussions, sharing best practices, and creating a collaborative environment conducive to the advancement of open research initiatives and methodologies on campus.
In this presentation, we will discuss the process of organizing the symposium in addition to the format and content of the symposium event as well as community engagement practices. Through the sharing of case studies, success, stories, and challenges, participants gained valuable insights at various stages of adopting open research practices. We also ensured the event contained designated time for networking, allowing for the foundation of sustained collaboration beyond the symposium. With nearly 50 attendees from across campus, including researchers, students, and administrators, the symposium provided a cross-pollination meeting ground for the McGill community. As we see greater interest and engagement with open science and open research principles, building such community on our campuses is essential for laying the groundwork for the next phases of a more transparent research landscape.
