{"id":693,"date":"2025-11-25T17:42:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/?p=693"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:06:38","slug":"open-day-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Partnership Open Day 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"text-size-40 m-text-size-30 row-margin text-weight-medium\">UoR-NHM Partnership Open Day 2026<\/h1>\n<p>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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-743 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A4006NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhm.ac.uk\/about-us\/science-centre.html\">NHM Unlocked<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhm.ac.uk\/about-us\/national-impact.html\">NHM National Programmes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/dissco-uk.org\/\">DiSSCo UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/agrifood-futures\/\">Agrifood Futures<\/a> and Sustainability Initiatives at\u00a0UoR, and The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/climateambassadors.org.uk\/\">Climate Ambassadors Scheme\u00a0<\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.educationnaturepark.org.uk\/\">National\u00a0Education\u00a0Nature\u00a0Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-744 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/B7A3848NHM_UoR_Partnership_Open_Day-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Talks continued with fascinating presentations on projects funded by the Partnership <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/research\/internal-funding\/\">seed-funding<\/a>, including \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/unlocking-field-samples\/\">Ice Age fossils from NHM field samples: transforming uncatalogued stores to valuable resources<\/a>\u201d, the <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/videographic-research-summer-school\/\">Videographic Essay\u00a0Summer\u00a0School<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-748 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-300x71.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"938\" height=\"222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-300x71.png 300w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-1024x242.png 1024w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-768x182.png 768w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-1536x363.png 1536w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-4-2048x484.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 938px) 100vw, 938px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A celebration of the UoR-NHM Partnership so far held on 8 January 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,16,8,20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[15],"class_list":["post-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engagement","category-events","category-news","category-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A celebration of the UoR-NHM Partnership so far held on 8 January 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Reading and Natural History Museum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T17:42:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T16:06:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-3-scaled.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beth Steiner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Beth Steiner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/\",\"name\":\"Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T17:42:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T16:06:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/c7d9ea7d77d3563478c56ebe7438ab8d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Partnership Open Day 2026\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/\",\"name\":\"University of Reading and Natural History Museum\",\"description\":\"Strategic Partnership\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/c7d9ea7d77d3563478c56ebe7438ab8d\",\"name\":\"Beth Steiner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6cb2c865c9ed0161b0a9e91b538b6a35\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0197e5c8da2a4332f5bcccf52115ede4bc3cd8d3c3f5ef45bf8af751bd3c52b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0197e5c8da2a4332f5bcccf52115ede4bc3cd8d3c3f5ef45bf8af751bd3c52b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Beth Steiner\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/author\/bethsteiner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum","og_description":"A celebration of the UoR-NHM Partnership so far held on 8 January 2026","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/","og_site_name":"University of Reading and Natural History Museum","article_published_time":"2025-11-25T17:42:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-13T16:06:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":617,"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/325\/2025\/11\/banner-3-scaled.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Beth Steiner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Beth Steiner","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/","name":"Partnership Open Day 2026 - University of Reading and Natural History Museum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-11-25T17:42:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-13T16:06:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/c7d9ea7d77d3563478c56ebe7438ab8d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/open-day-2026\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Partnership Open Day 2026"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/","name":"University of Reading and Natural History Museum","description":"Strategic Partnership","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/c7d9ea7d77d3563478c56ebe7438ab8d","name":"Beth Steiner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6cb2c865c9ed0161b0a9e91b538b6a35","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0197e5c8da2a4332f5bcccf52115ede4bc3cd8d3c3f5ef45bf8af751bd3c52b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0197e5c8da2a4332f5bcccf52115ede4bc3cd8d3c3f5ef45bf8af751bd3c52b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Beth Steiner"},"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/author\/bethsteiner\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/uor-nhm-partnership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}