Blogs
This page predominantly features blogs from NORF-funded research projects and initiatives, along with workshop summary reports.

Webinar: Open Monograph Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences Hosted by Irish Open Access Publishers (IOAP) with support by National Open Research Forum (NORF)
In this post, Beth Tyrrell and Lai Ma of the NORF-funded project, “Cultivating Open Research Culture in the Humanities and Social Sciences” describe a webinar they hosted on Open Monograph Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences on the 26th April 2024. The webinar brought together international experts and Irish publishing pioneers for a discussion on Open Access Monographs grounded in practical working solutions by adapting the Diamond OA model.

CORD Partnership hosts webinar on developing research partnerships
On Thursday 2 May, the Criminal justice Open Research Dialogue (CORD) Partnership hosted its second event of 2024. Funded by the National Open Research Forum (NORF) under the Open Research Fund Call 2023, CORD is bringing its partners together for three events...

A Case Study: Investing in Open Scholarly Infrastructure in Ireland Will Save Time and Money. It’ll Also Be Good for Research
This blog is re-posted from the Scholarly Kitchen and you can find it here. The post coincides with the launch of a cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the Irish National Open Research Forum (NORF) and written by MoreBrains Cooperative, that estimates the return on...

NORF is delighted to launch ‘Efficiency and Insight: A cost-benefit analysis for a central support service to support persistent identifier implementation in the Republic of Ireland’.
The National Open Research Forum is delighted to launch ‘Efficiency and Insight: A cost-benefit analysis for a central support service to support persistent identifier implementation in the Republic of Ireland’. This is the first of two publications in the NORF-led...

Citizen Science Month blog: The Kid’s Trial
April is Citizen Science Month and to mark the occasion we have invited early career researcher Simone LePage to blog about her experience of planning and implementing a project focusing on citizen science. Simone is a PhD Candidate with the Health Research Board...

Galway reflections: charting MOSS-I’s mission to drive open source policy within Irish universities
In this blog post, Michael Meagher, Project Manager on the ‘Managing Open Source Software in Irish Universities’ (MOSS-I) project led by Lero’s Dr Patrick Healy (University of Limerick) summarises a recent public event. On March 20th, we gathered at the University of...

Recommended reading to help inform open research strategy and practice: a blog
In this blog post, Michelle Dalton highlights and reflects on a selection of recent publications that have provided her with valuable take-aways to inform both strategy and practice. Michelle is Head of Academic & Research Services at University College Dublin...

MOSS-I Project – Steering Innovation in Open Source Software
In this blog post, Michael Meagher, Project Manager on the ‘Managing Open Source Software in Irish Universities’ (MOSS-I) project led by Lero's Dr Patrick Healy (University of Limerick) summarises a recent workshop. The MOSS-I Project aims to become an enabler for...

National Open Research Festival 2023 summary
Ireland’s inaugural National Open Research Festival (#NORFest2023) took place on the 2 - 3 November, 2023 in the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), in Dublin. The Festival was delivered with the support of the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) and the Royal Irish Academy...

New criminal justice research partnership for Ireland launches in Maynooth
On 17 January, the Criminal justice Open Research Dialogue (CORD) Partnership launched in Maynooth. Sixty people attended the day-long event, entitled Co-creating our principles and exploring the criminal justice sector’s open research needs. The participants were all...

Event: Launch of PublishOA Landscape Report
The PublishOA Landscape Report will be launched at a dedicated event on Tuesday, 10 June 2025, at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. This event offers an opportunity to explore the findings of this important new publication and to engage in discussion about the future...

IReL Mission Statement and Principles for Negotiations
The IReL Advisory Committee has recently published a new Mission Statement and IReL Principles for Negotiations.These documents together set a clear strategic direction for IReL’s work in advancing sustainable, inclusive and transparent access to scholarly...

Ireland Joins CERN as Associate Member
On 28 March 2025, Ireland was formally approved as an Associate Member State of CERN by the CERN Council—an important development for Ireland’s growing role in international research and innovation. The National Open Research Forum (NORF) welcomes Ireland’s new status...

Highlights from QSA*Net: May Events
The month of May was a busy one for the QSA*Net NORF-funded project, with three workshops engaging both national and international audiences and aimed at strengthening practices around Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA). Workshop at RUN-EU: Building Skills in QSA On...

12 Years of DORA: A New Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment
To mark DORA’s 12th anniversary, the team at DORA has launched A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations, that introduces actionable strategies for reforming research assessment practices. This guide offers...