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?  

Published: 13/05/2025
Author: Graham Johnson

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.

 

Open City Research annual report 2025

Read the report to find out more about what the team have been up to, and if you want to know more, you can learn more about several of the projects featured below.

Open City Research in action

Play video An illustration for ethical principles by We The Curious

Ethical principles - created by We The Curious Open City Research team, illustrated by Illustrated Live

Ethical Principles

Learn about our guiding principles developed and redeveloped through active practice

Want to work with us? Find out more and get in touch 


If you’re a funder or community partner, or just wanting to find out more, drop us a line and a member of the team will get back to you. 

And of course, you're welcome to come into Open City Lab if you’re visiting We The Curious, and a member of the Live Science Team will be able to guide you to making a contribution to research – whether it’s your first or you’ve been helping us change the direction of research for years.


Get in touch:

Contact our Open City Research team on opencityresearch@wethecurious.org or call 0117 915 1000. 


Download our Open City Research partner callout