Open City Research - annual report 2025

What is research, and who gets to define what research looks like? What role can a science centre, and its audiences have in creating new knowledge?  
 
Our Open City Research pledge is about giving everyone the opportunity to be part of science research. We create ways for the public to contribute to all stages of the research process, with the aim to make sure that research being carried out in our city represents our communities.

The Open City Research team have been busy over the past year, inside and outside of our venue, delivering our promises to champion public contributions to research, challenge current models of public engagement with research and improve outcomes for everyone. There’s been secrets in our shopping trolleys, seagulls in our schools and deep dives into the ethics we hold ourselves accountable to.

The final part of our Open City Research pledge is to advocate for ourselves, our community partners, our audiences and the value of our shared knowledge to society. As such, it felt important to collect all these achievements in one place – the first Open City Research annual report.