About OPERAS Innovation Lab

Scholarship is about communicating ideas to each other but the way we are doing it changes all the time. The invention of writing allowed a thought to be transmitted when we’re not seeing each other face-to-face. The advent of print enabled the very same message to reach large groups of people. Currently, digital formats allow researchers to express arguments and findings in different media forms… But how does this actually work? This is exactly what the OPERAS Innovation Lab is interested in.

In the world of print we used to treat books and articles as the end of the research process. But today we can link the text, data and visualisation in one narrative, allowing readers to navigate it in ways they find useful and inspiring. When scholars want to convey practical advice they can create toolkits benefiting from the digital formats of short essays and movie clips. Research blogs give researchers an opportunity to communicate their research on early stages in a less formal way and engage in discussion with their peers and wider audiences. So, the future of writing means using a variety of media forms to communicate research ideas and results better.

This looks promising and exciting but it is not that easy for scholars who are used to working in traditional settings, writing books or articles and giving talks in university halls. The role of the OPERAS Innovation lab is to gather knowledge about new communication practices in Social Sciences and Humanities and use this knowledge to help researchers embrace new technologies. We ask what authors need to communicate effectively and help them to acquire these competencies. On the basis of workshops, interviews and case-studies we prepare guidelines and training resources bringing scholars closer to the new ways of communicating. When they need a tool or service that doesn’t yet exist, we try to build a prototype that could be used by them.