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Lucy Burke, a Qualitative Research Associate and PhD Student with the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG), has been awarded the University of Sheffield Open Research Prize 2025 in the Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) category. This recognition celebrates her outstanding commitment to making her research transparent, accessible and impactful.

The Open Research Prize highlights researchers who excel at making their work discoverable and reusable for different audiences, including policymakers, academics and the public. Lucy received the award for her comprehensive engagement with open research practices throughout her PhD, which is funded by Wellcome as part of the Public Health Economics and Decision Science (PHEDS) programme.

A commitment to open science

Lucy's dedication to open research was influenced by her Wellcome funding, which mandates open access to research outputs. She believes open science maximises research impact and promotes efficiency, transparency and rigour, especially when using public resources. Her goal is to ensure her research is not only freely available but also effectively communicated to a wide range of audiences.

Commenting on her win, Lucy said: "I'm thrilled to receive this award in recognition of my commitment to open science. Embracing open and FAIR principles has been a central goal in my work, and I've learned so much from my colleagues in SCHARR. I'm especially grateful for the excellent training and diverse dissemination opportunities that have supported me in applying these principles and showcasing their value."

Embedding open practices and amplifying impact

Lucy's commitment has translated into concrete actions throughout her doctoral research. She pre-registered her study protocol on the Open Science Framework (OSF) to enhance transparency and moved from proprietary software to R, an open-source tool, significantly improving reproducibility. She also made a preprint version of her paper freely available to share time-sensitive findings quickly and made her R code openly available for scrutiny and replication.

Beyond traditional academic outputs, Lucy actively engages with wider audiences. She presented her research at Sheffield's Pint of Science festival in 2024, leading to valuable two-way discussions with members of the public. In 2025, she reached hundreds more through the University of Sheffield's Bright Minds webinar series which aims to share current PhD research with University alumni. These activities have led to some significant connections, including discussions about the practical implications of alcohol research for policing, and potential collaborations with researchers at other universities.

Find out more about Lucy's approach to open research and the resulting impacts in her full case study on the University of Sheffield website.

What's next for Lucy?

Lucy is currently developing the protocol for her second PhD study, which will also be pre-registered on the Open Science Framework, with data available in ORDA, the University of Sheffield's data repository. She is also currently working as a Qualitative Research Associate on a project investigating young people's consumption of no- and low-alcohol drinks in family settings.