TIER2’s interdisciplinary, expert project team will use co-creation methods to work with social scientists, life and computer science researchers, research funders, and publishers to further understand and address the causes of poor reproducibility. The project will produce and test new tools, connect initiatives, engage communities, and test novel interventions to increase reuse and overall quality of research results. Dr Alexandra Bannach-Brown, TIER2 Lead Investigator for Charité, says, “we are excited to work with our research communities to iteratively test and create practical solutions to a growing problem”.
The project
TIER2 launched in January 2023 and will run until December 2025, with total funding of 2 million Euros provided by the EU’s Horizon Europe program and UK Research & Innovation.
TIER2 will study reproducibility across diverse contexts by selecting three broad research areas and two cross-disciplinary stakeholder groups. The areas are the social, life, and computer sciences; meanwhile, the cross-disciplinary stakeholder groups are research publishers and funders. Reaching these contexts will allow the project team to systematically investigate the causes and implications of the lack of reproducibility across the research spectrum. Together with curated co-creation communities of these groups, the project will design, implement, and assess systematic interventions – addressing critical levers of change (tools, skills, communities, incentives, and policies) in the process.
The project will start by thoroughly examining how the meanings and implications of reproducibility vary across research fields due to epistemic diversity (significant and systematic differences in concepts, problems, research objects, methodologies, and kinds of judgment). Next, TIER2 has the goal to build state-of-the-art evidence base, footed on the extent and efficacy of existing reproducibility interventions, practices, and an inventory of relevant tools, identifying critical gaps in current knowledge. TIER2 will use (co-creation) scenario-planning, backcasting, and user-centered design techniques to select, prioritize, design, adapt and implement new tools to enhance reproducibility across contexts. Alignment activities will ensure tools are EOSC-interoperable, while capacity-building actions with communities will facilitate awareness, skills, and community uptake. Finally, a systematic assessment of the efficacy of interventions across contexts will enable a synthesis of knowledge regarding reproducibility gains and savings. This assessment will inform a final roadmap for future reproducibility, including policy recommendations – co-created by stakeholders.
Through these activities, TIER2 aims to significantly boost knowledge on reproducibility, create tools, engage communities, and implement interventions and policies across different contexts. This will improve the reuse of resources and the quality of research results in the European research landscape and beyond – and increasing trust, integrity, and efficiency.
For more information, read the full project proposal, recently published via the Open Science journal RIO.
