Local Open Research Champions

Dr Jessica Bates

Senior Lecturer, School of Education

Jessica is passionate about promoting open research and helping colleagues adopt open practices across the social sciences and humanities. With a background in library and information science, Jessica brings broad knowledge of open research practices, particularly open access publishing, rights retention, and open methods.

Email: J.bates@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Juliana Gerard

Lecturer in Linguistics, School of Communication and Media

Juliana is committed to promoting transparent and reproducible research practices. Juliana has particular interests in pre-registration, data sharing, preprints, and open access publishing, and can support colleagues in balancing openness with ethical and GDPR requirements.

Email: j.gerard@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Pamela Whitaker

Lecturer in Art Psychotherapy, Belfast School of Art

Professor Jane Zheng

Professor of Computer Sciences, School of Computing

Jane works to encourage greater engagement with open research and the adoption of good practice across disciplines. They have particular experience in pre-registration, open methods, code and software sharing, and publications, supporting researchers to make their work more transparent and accessible.

Email: h.zheng@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Stein Menting

Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science, School of Sport and Exercise Science

Stein is keen to advance open research practices and support colleagues in adopting transparent and responsible approaches to research. Drawing on experience across sport and exercise science, administrative data research, and higher education, Stein brings knowledge of pre-registration, research data management, data sharing, and open access publishing, with growing interests in software and code sharing and citizen science.

Email: s.menting@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Maria Loane

Senior Research Fellow, School of Nursing and Paramedic Science

Maria advocates for making research more accessible, transparent, and reusable, particularly in areas where data sharing can be complex. Maria’s experience includes research data management, FAIR data principles, preprints, open access publishing, and open software and code sharing. She is interested in reducing barriers to publishing for researchers at all career stages.

Email: ma.loane@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Aoife Caffrey

Research Associate NICHE Clinical Trials Officer, School of Biomedical Sciences

Aoife works to promote high-quality, open research that is transparent, reproducible, and accessible. With experience in clinical trials and health research, Aoife bring practical knowledge of pre-registration, open methods, data management, open access publishing, rights retention, data sharing, and research governance.

Email: a.caffrey@ulster.ac.uk

Terri Flood

Lecturer in Therapeutic Radiotherapy, School of Health Sciences

Terri supports the adoption of open research practices that enhance transparency, reproducibility, and engagement beyond academia. Terri’s experience includes open access publishing, research data management, transparent methods reporting, and collaborative research involving practitioners and stakeholders.

Email: t.flood@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Abbie Cahoon

Lecturer in Development/Cognitive Psychology, School of Psychology

Abbie is committed to promoting engagement with open research practices across the University, with colleagues and students at all levels and through sharing educational open research resources with external educators across the education sector. Abbie developed and coordinates the module PSY568: Current Trends in Psychological Research, which introduces open research practices into the B.Sc. Psychology curriculum. Abbie is a strong advocate of open research and strives to make their work as transparent and reproducible as possible.

Visit the Open Science Framework website

Email: a.cahoon@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Sarah Butter

Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and School of Medicine

Sarah actively promotes open research practices to enhance the accessibility, reproducibility, transparency, and credibility of research. She engages in open research practices wherever possible and supports others to do the same. She has particular experience in study pre-registration, data archiving, and the production of methodological documentation.

Email: s.butter@ulster.ac.uk