Systematic evaluation of community development through open science training and incentivising contextual mentorship in health research

Open Life Science (OLS, https://openlifesci.org/) offers a 16-week long cohort-based training and mentoring programme that enables researchers to learn about, reflect on and integrate open science principles in their work.

The Open Research Fund will support the continuation of OLS and the delivery of three cohorts of the programme in 24 months.

In addition to supporting the volunteer members (up to 30 projects, 30 mentors and 15 experts per cohort), OLS will recruit a full-time staff (1-FTE) for 18 months to conduct a long- term impact study and provide administrative support to the leadership team.

A successfully completed Open Research Fund activity in OLS after 2-years of funding period will have enabled: (i) research-based evaluation and enhancement of the OLS curriculum, training materials, mentoring formats and value-based approach to community development, (ii) incentivised integration of contextual (sociotechnical and cultural) knowledge of mentors and project leads in the open science project they develop in the program, (iii) enhanced representation and equitable participation of health researchers and community builders from the Global South in a shared vision for the global open science through collaboration, (iv) assessment of the long-term impact of OLS on the careers of the OLS participants and adoption of contextualised open science practices in research work in their regional contexts across low- and middle- income, as well as high-income countries, and (v) publication of a series of reports capturing different outputs, building open source evidence base and inviting support for the sustainability of OLS over the next 5-years.