Understanding the Implementation of Open Research Training across UK Institutions

This qualitative evaluation study explores the barriers and enablers of implementation of open research training at participants’ institutions following attendance at a UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) Train-the-Trainer (T3) course, delivered within the UKRN Open Research Programme (September 2021—August 2026).

It addresses three questions:

•     How do T3 participants implement, adapt, and embed open research training within their institutions?

•     What institutional conditions act as barriers or enablers of that embedding?

•     What individual, social, and structural factors shape whether these practices become normalised in institutional culture and practice?

Small group interviews (n=9 participants across four sessions) were analysed using Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) as a deductive coding framework. The NPT constructs were operationalised to capture how trainers made sense of the programme, engaged with it, enacted it, and evaluated it. Trainers typically described themselves as motivated and capable, and recognised the value of training on Open Research. However, effective participation in the onward delivery expected as part of the Train-the-Trainer programme depended on institutional conditions. To assess impact and quality of the training they delivered, trainers relied on informal cues and on optional post-session surveys. Only infrequently did such informal evidence reach the programme level in a way that could be acted upon. The central finding is that effective onward delivery depends more on local institutional conditions than on the quality of the training itself. We characterise this trainer-level (T3) implementation work; the downstream propagation of training through local delivery, and a cross-stage synthesis, are the subject of a companion study.