Opening repositories to practice research: sharing the findings of the Practice Research Voices (PR VOICES) and Sustaining Practice Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Education (SPARKLE) projects

Repositories have historically focused on retrospective capture of research products, reflecting existing. research recognition systems, which do not effectively recognise non-traditional (non-text) outputs created by researchers in arts and humanities disciplines. Bulley and Sahin (2021) define practice research as a "term that describes all manners of research where practice is the significant method of research conveyed in a research output." taking place across disciplines. In 2022, the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council, funded two projects – Practice Research Voices (PRVoices) and Sustaining Practice Research Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Engagement (SPARKLE). They built on work done by the University of Westminster and software company Cayuse, open standards work carried out by this team in collaboration with Jisc and the British Library, and the recommendations of the PRAG-UK reports. This presentation will present the findings and recommendations of both projects to move the repositories landscape towards becoming a platform for ongoing engagement throughout the research lifecycle and beyond, capturing process and product, enabling digital preservation, and subsequently embedding in open standards. This would lead to a more equitable open research landscape where all research is recognized, discoverable and preserved and all researchers benefit from the interoperability benefits this brings.