CORE Principles for building sustainable research communities
Abstract
Abstract: Researchers regularly gather around problems, tools, shared interests and practices. We build resources which have the potential to advance our area of expertise, but we have not fostered the skills to build and maintain a sustainable community of users and contributors to make best use of those resources. This socio-technical infrastructure can maximise the reach and longevity of our efforts, increasing the potential for reuse and diverse impact.In this session I will introduce the CORE principles for building sustinable research commuities: (C) Calibrate: Continuously measure interests, priorities and engagement, to understand and respond to your communities needs; (O) Open: Ensure knowledge, processes and roadmaps are accessible, shared, and transparent whenever possible; (R) Reward: Actively support, reward and celebrate all contributions, acknowledging that everything is valuable; (E) Empower: Give members genuine agency, authority and mechanisms to shape the communities’ activity. We will show how these principles can be applied in an integrated practice through careful infrastucture choices and intentional processes. Links: RCM Cooperative: https://www.rcmcooperative.com Research Commuity Management paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.00108 The Turing Way: https://the-turing-way.start.page Communit Mapping Ineractive map example: https://cassgvp.kumu.io/alan-turing-institute-environment-and-sustainability Early documentation of mapping process: https://github.com/rcmcooperative/community-mapping TOSI Project: http://github.com/rcmcooperative/partner-TOSI
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31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0 RCM Cooperative | Source & License: CORE Principles for building sustainable research communities December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0
December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Communities we have managed Modelling and high-precision forecasting of complex environmental systems to make leaps in weather prediction and sustainable energy
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Research Community Managers foster a collaborative environment where a diverse community can access the socio-technical infrastructure and participatory processes they need to actively engage, gain recognition and build shared agency over their work. CC-BY 4.0 image by The Turing Way and Scriberia, Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3332807.
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 CORE Principles for sustainable research communities Empower: Give members genuine agency, authority and mechanisms to shape the communities’ activity. Reward: Actively support, reward and celebrate all contributions, acknowledging that everything is valuable. Open: Ensure knowledge, processes and roadmaps are accessible, shared, and transparent whenever possible. Calibrate: Continuously measure interests, priorities and engagement, to understand and respond to your communities needs. C E R O
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Build trust ●Minimise information asymmetries ●Share roadmaps and progress towards milestones, with identifiable interaction points ●Be explicit about what information will remain confidential and why OPEN Support sustainability ●Assume there will be turn over in maintainers and leaders ●Document processes and decision making ●Aim for maximal reproducibility of activities and accessibility of materials
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Extrinsic motivators ●Understand how your community are motivated and build in meaningful benefits ●Acknowledge all contributions, especially outward-facing champions ●Aim for financial or time-based compensation for high expertise or workload tasks Intrinsic motivators ●Create a positive, welcoming and stimulating environment ●Tap into why people do this work and understand their core purpose ●Celebrate visibly and show your members you are grateful for their contributions. REWARD
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 EMPOWER Autonomy: Clear governance and decentralised decision making Collaboration: Practice and normalise and facilitate Engagement: Varied and accessible engagement opportunities which are intrinsically and extrinsically rewarding Build pathways and mechanisms for community members to move around in these dimensions. Potential community ‘leaders” will be high in all three; a leadership pipeline is essential for sustainability.
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Know community priorities ●Deliver what your community tell you they want (maximises engagement) ●Trust their expertise in the problem space and developing solutions ●Listen deeply and regularly Measure community health ●Know who is engaging and where ●Know who is not engaging ●Watch for indicators of leadership pipeline ●Carefully manage data about your community members CALIBRATE
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 CORE Infrastructure ●Calibrate: Track engagement ●Open: Transparency and privacy mechanisms ●Reward: Attribution by default ●Empower: Reproducibility and decentralised contributions ●Calibrate: Low-effort engagement ●Open: Public channels, open communication ●Reward: Celebrations and gratitude ●Empower: Self organising
December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Engagement Strategic Development Technical Expertise Peripheral Accountability Core Communication s Participation guidelines and process Content development Technical documentation Open communication Community documentation Resource curation Internal communication platforms External communication management Best practices Community events Community -level governance Impact and reporting Engaging non -specialist users Stakeholder mapping & engagement Onboarding Roadmap for engagement Knowledge and skill workshop Integrate feedback in strategy Mentoring and upskilling members Aligning with EDIA principles Recognition and visibility Onboarding diverse community leaders Community events Open collaboration Community survey and reporting Reproducibility and knowledge sharing License types, version control Infrastructure, technical skills open science strategy Data practice (w/ Data Wranglers) Technical training (w/ Skills team) Supporting code(w/ RSE/RDS) Maintaining code (w/ RSE/RDS) Data analysis (w/ RSE/RDS) Awareness of timeline, budget, risks Share community plans Team and community meetings Task prioritisation Build/follow internal process Ethics documentation (w/ researchers) Event logistics (event teams) Budget planning (accounting) Project meetings (w/ RPM) Community engagement (w/ RPM) Legal requirements ( w/ RPM) Internal project reporting (w/ RPM) Records for references (w/ RPM) Horizon scanning, Identify opportunities Vision and priorities (w/ Leadership) Ways of working Implement policies (W/ RPM) Community assessment Community/project collaboration Community advocacy Incentive and rewards (w/ Leadership) Identify growth opportunity Promote/demo open leadership Sustainability plans (w/ Leadership) Strategic partnerships (w/ Leadership) Sustaining/sunsetting (w/ leadership) SKILLS & COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK Product management (w/ RAM) Technical Support (w/ RSE/RDS) Web/UI/UX design (w/ UX specialist) Reproducible workflows Data management (w/ Data Stewards) Sharan, Malvika, Emma Karoune, Vicky Hellon, Cassandra Gould Van Praag, Gabin Kayumbi, Arielle Bennett, Alexandra Araujo Alvarez et al. "Professionalising Community Management Roles in Interdisciplinary Research Projects." arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.00108 (2024). RCM Cooperative | 10.5281/zenodo.16873659 | CC-BY-4.0
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION ●Complexity of potential problems and community members involved in solving problems increases ●Scope of participation, diversity of perspectives and collaboration to solve problems improves ●Channels for engagement, infrastructure requirement and need for resourcing increases ●Peoples’ involvement in community building, maintenance and sustainability increases ●Levels of participation can be used to establish and improve objectives (example: Y1, Y2, Y5) 1 Inform community 2 Invite Feedback 3 Engage & Involve 4 Mobilise & Connect 5 Empower Groups 6 Decentralise Power
31st October 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17489926 | CC-BY-4.0December 2025 | 10.5281/zenodo.17850245 | CC-BY-4.0 Levels of Community Participation Stages of Community Building 12 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 Initiation Planning & Design Implementation Growth & Scaling Monitoring & Evaluation Sustainability / Sunsetting Inform community Invite Feedback Engage & Involve Mobilise & Connect Empower Groups Decentralise Power Information about the project Members awareness plan Knowledge share activities Open communicatio n strategy User engagement data Reusable resources Project roadmap created by project team Members feedback process Feedback activities Feedback on ongoing and future plans Feedback and community interest data Onboarding new teams and members Roadmap created by project actors Members engagement process Active engagement activities Involving community in delivering project objectives Feedback and community impact data Creating new leadership opportunities Roadmap created by project actors Members collaboration process Collaborative process for group engagement Mobilising community - led initiatives in line with project objectives Reporting and Impact data from community initiatives Groups connected and led towards shared goals Initial roadmap created and revised by external actors Members involvement in decisionmaking Multiple collaborative group activities Community groups involved in decisionmaking Reporting and impact data from community initiatives Connected groups shaping future goals and directions Initial roadmap created and revised by external actors Communityled decisionmaking process Activities to delegate responsibilities to groups Community groups making decisions in benefit of the community Independent reporting from connected groups Connected groups working independently & creating new opportunities COMMUNITY MATURATION INDICATOR Examples of what community “engagement” looks like at different levels of participation