The role of academic and research libraries as active participants and leaders in the production of scholarly research

RLUK is delighted to announce that it has appointed Evidence Base and associates to undertake a major scoping study, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), into the role of academic and research libraries as partners in, and leaders of, academic and scholarly research. The scoping study will explore the considerable expertise, experience, and potential of research and academic libraries as active participants and leaders in the production of scholarly research.

Evidence Base is a Library and Information research and consultancy unit within Library and Learning Resources at Birmingham City University (BCU). Their submission to RLUK’s Invitation to Tender was made in association with Professor David Baker, Dr Sarah McNicol and David Ball. The project team will be advised by Alison Allden, Dr Chris Batt and Professor Jane Winters and supported by Eileen Breen, Dr Lucy Ellis and Sukhvinder Kaur.

Matt Greenhall, RLUK’s Deputy Executive Director, commented:

Evidence Base has both the expertise and capacity to undertake this work, and have an impressive track record of working across the higher-education and information sectors and in undertaking high-quality, impactful research. They have assembled an impressive research team with extensive experience and expertise drawn from across the information and research communities. We look forward to working with Evidence Base, their associates, and our partners within the AHRC, in taking forward this exciting and important piece of work over the coming months.

Pete Dalton, Director of Evidence Base, commented:

The research team is delighted to be working on the scoping study in partnership with RLUK and AHRC. This is an exciting and timely project and one which we expect to result in long term benefits for academic and research libraries as well as other partners in the production of scholarly research.

The scoping study project will run from January to June 2021. RLUK would like to thank colleagues, from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and institutions, for expressing their interest in this project and for having registered their willingness to contribute to its discussions through the associated ‘call for participation’ on the RLUK website. The call for participation is still open and can be accessed here.

Questions regarding this research should be directed to matthew.greenhall@rluk.ac.uk