Fieldwork and gathering data

Planning fieldwork and data collection, including travel arrangements and risk assessments, are largely managed in the Faculties. What follows are some general advice and training links. Fieldwork is be covered in the Welcome Back sessions that happen in September each year.

Student tip: “The Library team run a helpful session on how to write your data management plan and offer to review the first draft of your data management plan.”

Health and safety

The OU is committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all those involved in the discharge of its undertakings, both within its designated premises and at external locations. Risk assessment is one of the main tools used in order to ensure adequate control measures are in place to manage the safety of individuals and is of particular importance when considering higher risk activities/environments such as laboratories or fieldwork.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires risk assessments to be completed to identify significant risks. The assessment must:

identify significant hazards
decide who might be harmed, e.g. students, and how they might be harmed
evaluate the risks arising from hazards and decide if existing precautions are adequate or if more are needed
record the significant findings if five or more people are employed
review the assessment from time to time especially after a significant change or if there is reason to believe it is no longer valid and revise as necessary.

Risk assessments must be completed with supervisors prior to work/travel commencing. Any significant risks identified must be documented and the associated control measures identified. This may then require follow up with a documented Safe system of Work/Method statement. All of this information must be formally communicated to the students in order to provide them with the relevant information and instruction to allow them to work safely in their particular environment, ensuring the safety of them and those around them.

The OU laboratories are covered by a Safety Code of Practice which applies to all users, including students and their internal supervisors. Those responsible for the laboratories are responsible for ensuring that all users have been informed of the Code of Practice and the requirement to follow it.

The University has a specific duty under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) to prevent exposure to substances hazardous to health or, if prevention is not reasonably practicable, to undertake an assessment to adequately control exposure. No work shall be commenced involving any activity likely to be hazardous to health until a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks has been carried out. This process will identify measures required to control any activity involving a potential hazard to health.

Students and supervisors are formally responsible for ensuring that a written COSHH assessment is prepared for all experiments involving the use of substances conducted within The OU, at a host institution or in an external environment. They are expected to be familiar with, and ensure compliance with safety regulations applying to any laboratory and/or equipment used as well as the COSHH 2002 Regulations. More information is available at Health and Safety Executive and also at the Open University Health and Safety website.

The OU also requires risk assessment to be produced where fieldwork and international travel are involved. Guidance is available on both the Health and Safety intranet above and on the People Services website. It is standard practice within the OU to consult the Foreign Office website where international travel is involved as part of the travel risk assessment.

Indemnity insurance

The University has indemnity insurance for full-time and part-time directly supported students carrying out research related to their studies on University premises or carrying out University business (specifically on behalf of the University) elsewhere. (Note that this insurance is subject to the normal terms and conditions that apply to the University’s other insurances.) This insurance does not cover off-site fieldwork. An appropriate risk assessment should be carried out for all off-site fieldwork.;

Forms and Guidance

Note: if any of these links are broken try searching on the main Forms and Guidance page.

GDPR guidance

Fieldwork and travel checklist and timelines for PGRs

Training resources

The following modules are part of OLCreate: Research skills for PhD students | OLCreate (enrolment keys are here RESEARCH-SKILLS: Enrolment keys | OU online).

Becoming a professional researcher This module includes a unit on Safety and risk in research which contains guidance on planning for fieldwork and travel, and researcher and participant safety in the field.
Designing your research
Approaches to data collection.

Other helpful resources

What differs between Faculties?
Each Faculty may have its own policy and procedure around stages and actions including:
how you can spend any funds related to your training, e.g., Research Training Support Grant (RTSG or Research Student Support Fund/RESSF)
health and safety, including work stations and risk assessments for fieldwork
arranging travel for conferences and fieldwork
equipment and specialist software
Third Party Monitor allocation and any subject-specific buddying/mentoring.
We recommend you start by talking with your Faculty Administrator about what happens in your Faculty (mailbox address on Contact us)