The Catalyst Program

BITSS Catalysts are graduate students, academic faculty, and other researchers in the social sciences who are committed to changing norms by educating the current and next generation of economists, psychologists, political scientists, and other social scientists on transparency tools and practices.

The Catalyst program formalizes a network of professionals to advance the teaching, practice, funding, and publishing of transparent social science research. The overarching goal of this program is to connect and empower individuals to make changes in their own classrooms, in their universities, and across their network, thereby achieving far-reaching change.

Meet the Catalysts!

BITSS is supporting 159 academics and research practitioners working at 101 institutions in 30 countries (across five continents) as leaders in the open science movement. Learn more in the Catalyst database which includes profiles searchable by institution, discipline, and open science expertise and services.

What do Catalysts do?

Educate

Catalysts deliver at least one training per academic year on research transparency. Catalysts can identify the appropriate delivery mechanisms for integrating training on research transparency, including integrating into existing curricula, seminars, workshops, or boot camps.

View Catalyst Training Projects here. Catalysts’ workshops can also be found on our Events page.

Develop, share, and strengthen educational materials

Catalysts share existing resources and new materials that complement and extend the BITSS Library, as well as provide feedback on the existing BITSS educational materials library. All materials will be shared through OSF, GitHub, or other sharing mechanisms for the benefit of other Catalysts and the broader community.

Advocate

Catalysts lead advocacy efforts that will affect policy change at the department or academic senate levels (e.g. among university governing bodies). This may include writing blogs, OpEd pieces, meeting with administrators, and other decision-makers to discuss and develop additions and or revisions to the curriculum.

Catalyst Training Grants

BITSS offers grants to Catalysts to develop and deliver training in the form of workshops, conferences, short courses, or university-level curriculum development.

We currently have an open call for funding applications for projects taking place between January 2024-June 2024! See the full call for proposals for details about how to apply.