UoR-NHM Partnership Open Day 2026

A celebration of the UoR-NHM Partnership was held on 8 January 2026 at Henley Business School on Whiteknights Campus. It was an opportunity for staff from both institutions to hear about successes so far, to learn about progress on NHM’s new state-of-the-art collections, research and digitisation centre at TVSP, and to engage and network with each other. We also welcomed guests from the British Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the British Film Institute and AHRC.

After enjoying coffee and pastries, over 160 attendees were welcomed by Paola Ricciardi and Beth Steiner who manage the Partnership, and by Professor Parveen Yaqoob (Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, UoR) and Dr Tim Littlewood (Executive Director of Science, NHM). There was then an overview of highlights to date and ongoing activities, before presentations on the wider context of the Partnership including NHM Unlocked, NHM National Programmes, DiSSCo UK, Agrifood Futures and Sustainability Initiatives at UoR, and The Climate Ambassadors Scheme and National Education Nature Park.

Talks continued with fascinating presentations on projects funded by the Partnership seed-funding, including “Ice Age fossils from NHM field samples: transforming uncatalogued stores to valuable resources”, the Videographic Essay Summer School, and a summary of Collections and Culture projects. This was followed by closing remarks from Dr Doug Gurr (Director, NHM) who spoke enthusiastically about the exciting opportunities present for further collaboration and building on the geographical benefits of TVSP.

Following a buffet lunch, attendees divided into groups for breakout sessions looking at areas of overlapping research interest and development possibilities, including: Digital Collections; Archaeology and Ancient Environment; NHM lab facilities at Thames Valley Science Park; Collections and Culture; Palaeontology and Evolution, and AI Tools and Innovation for Research.