Programme schedule

Find out about how the Ambassadors programme will be structured and scheduled

Contents

All activities of the Ambassadors programme will take place online. Any in-person celebratory or team building meetings will be designed to be as accessible as possible and accommodating to the responsibilities of our Ambassadors.

Technology

We will use a number of online technologies to work efficiently, transparently and reproducibly. Many of these solutions will provide you with transferable skills which you will be able to incorporate into your own research workflow. Training and support will be provided to ensure all Ambassadors are comfortable working in this way.

Regular meeting calls will take place on MS Teams. For quick messaging we will also use Slack.

We will use hackmd.io to write collaborative notes during the call. You will need a GitHub account to use hackmd. Feel free to take a look at the notes from our previous meetings.

We will use the OxCIN GitLab instance to write documentation and manage project work. You will require a OxCIN IT account to access GitLab.

We may use padlet for creative exercises.

Group meetings structure

First weeks

During the first month of the programme you will participate in workshops to help you work with git and GitLab, understand more about the value and practices of open science, and learn how to use the Open OxCIN tools.

Weeks 5-8

Once you are familiar with the Open OxCIN infrastructure and working on GitLab, you will be encouraged to decide which tool(s) you would like to work on and develop further. You may also have ideas about which other projects you would like to take on or contribute to. We will allocate individual as well as group projects for you to work on during the rest of the programme, based on interests, preferences and what is needed by the wider community.

Rest of the year

Our regular calls will be 30-60 minutes long; initially on a weekly basis and every other week later in the year.

These calls will mostly be used for updates on ongoing projects, including discussions, questions, opinions, brainstorming, support, guidance, feedback, etc. Occasionally we might also use the time for co-working on specific tasks and issues.

About once per term we will have an in-person hack-day (half or full day) to work together as a group on ongoing projects.

You may choose to contribute outside of this time, or arrange co-working times with other ambassadors which better suite your schedules.

Launch and close meetings

In January 2026 you will join the Ambassadors of previous years for a formal introduction to the Open OxCIN ambassadors programme (delivered by the Open OxCIN Steering Group, hear the results of our programme evaluation and share your expectations and goals for the year ahead. These activities will be held at a College in January 2026, in an informal environment where we can celebrate each others success and contributions, hear from external speakers and have drinks together.

Schedule

Below is a guideline schedule of activities for the 2026 cohort. Calendar invitations for each meeting will be sent to all Ambassadors.

We recognise that these activities will sit alongside your usual commitments. We will endeavour to be responsive to your work schedule.

MeetingDateTimeTopic
1Thursday 11th December 202509:30 - 11:00intro to the programme
2-3weekly January 20261hgit and gitlab, tools, demos, etc.
special(date TBC) January 202612:00 - 18:00 (location TBC)OxCIN ambassadors celebration event + dinner
4-8weekly in February 20261hsetting up projects, planning, training, policy, incentives, etc.
8+weekly troughout 20261hworking on projects, updates, co-working
end 2026December 20261hclose out and feedback