The Center for Open Science welcomes Chris Bourg and Marcus Munafò to its board of directors
Media Contact: pr@cos.io
Open science has moved from the margins to the mainstream. With the release of our 2026–2028 Strategic Plan, COS is focusing its next phase of work on advancing Lifecycle Open Science, ensuring that research plans, data, materials, code, and outcomes remain openly connected and reusable over time. We are pleased to welcome Chris Bourg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Marcus Munafò (University of Bath) to the COS Board of Directors at this pivotal moment. Their leadership in equitable open scholarship, research culture reform, and metascience will help shape how this next phase unfolds.
Chris Bourg is the Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS). Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Bourg worked for 12 years in the Stanford University Libraries. Before Stanford, she spent 10 years as an active-duty U.S. Army officer, including three years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She received her BA from Duke University, her MA from the University of Maryland, and her MA and Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford.
Bourg has extensive experience promoting equitable and open scholarship and is an advocate for the role of libraries in promoting social justice and democracy. Bourg co-chaired the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries, the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT’s Research, and the MIT Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI. She is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science, as well as the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship.
Bourg is a member of several advisory boards and steering committees, including Annual Reviews, Center for Open Science, and the Stanford Data Science Institute’s Center for Open and Reproducible Science (DSI-CORES).
“With its evidence-based, systems-level approach, the Center for Open Science is poised to take open scholarship from an ideal to the norm," said Bourg. "I’m pleased to join this group of like-minded scholars, advocates, and research and technology leaders to advance the shared goal of a more equitable, transparent, and trustworthy scholarly ecosystem.”
Marcus Munafò is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at the University of Bath, where he leads strategic planning and the delivery of academic priorities, oversees organizational resourcing, provides institutional leadership for equity, diversity and inclusion, and supports senior-level external engagement. His research spans biological psychology and metascience. He has particular expertise in the relationship between health behaviors—such as tobacco and alcohol use—and physical and mental health outcomes, and has worked closely with policymakers, influencing policy at national and international levels.
Prior to joining the University of Bath, Munafò was Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture at the University of Bristol, where he served as Co-Director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group and as an MRC Investigator in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit. Alongside his academic career, he has held roles beyond the university sector, including as a rowing coach for Oxford University Women’s Boat Club and the Great Britain Under-23 team, and as an officer in the British Army Reserve.
Munafò has a longstanding interest in research quality and the systems that shape it. In 2019, he co-founded the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and now serves as its Executive Director. He leads a major Research England–funded initiative to accelerate the adoption of open research practices across UK higher education. He also chairs the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neurosciences and Mental Health Board and the CHDI Foundation Independent Statistical Standing Committee. He completed his undergraduate degree in psychology and philosophy at the University of Oxford, followed by an MSc and PhD in health psychology at the University of Southampton.
“I’ve long advocated for the importance of open research—and transparency in general —in academia, as a way to drive both quality and trust. At a time when universities are having to adapt to a changing world, there is a real opportunity to embed these principles of openness and transparency,” Munafo said. “For that reason, I’m delighted by this opportunity to contribute to the work of the Center for Open Science.”
With Bourg and Munafò joining the Board, COS is well positioned to carry forward its True North of Lifecycle Open Science, demonstrating what works, strengthening the infrastructure and incentives that support it, and promoting sustained adoption across disciplines and geographies. We are grateful for their willingness to serve and energized by the expertise they bring as we advance research that is open, rigorous, and trustworthy.
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About the Center for Open Science
Founded in 2013, the Center for Open Science (COS) is a nonprofit culture change organization with a mission to increase openness, integrity, and trustworthiness of scientific research. COS pursues this mission by building communities around open science practices, supporting metascience research, and developing and maintaining free, open source software tools, including the Open Science Framework (OSF). Learn more at cos.io.
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Open science has moved from the margins to the mainstream. With the release of our 2026–2028 Strategic Plan, COS is focusing its next phase of work on advancing Lifecycle Open Science, ensuring that research plans, data, materials, code, and outcomes remain openly connected and reusable over time. We are pleased to welcome Chris Bourg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Marcus Munafò (University of Bath) to the COS Board of Directors at this pivotal moment. Their leadership in equitable open scholarship, research culture reform, and metascience will help shape how this next phase unfolds.
Chris Bourg is the Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS). Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Bourg worked for 12 years in the Stanford University Libraries. Before Stanford, she spent 10 years as an active-duty U.S. Army officer, including three years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She received her BA from Duke University, her MA from the University of Maryland, and her MA and Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford.
Bourg has extensive experience promoting equitable and open scholarship and is an advocate for the role of libraries in promoting social justice and democracy. Bourg co-chaired the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries, the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT’s Research, and the MIT Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI. She is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science, as well as the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship.
Bourg is a member of several advisory boards and steering committees, including Annual Reviews, Center for Open Science, and the Stanford Data Science Institute’s Center for Open and Reproducible Science (DSI-CORES).
“With its evidence-based, systems-level approach, the Center for Open Science is poised to take open scholarship from an ideal to the norm," said Bourg. "I’m pleased to join this group of like-minded scholars, advocates, and research and technology leaders to advance the shared goal of a more equitable, transparent, and trustworthy scholarly ecosystem.”
Marcus Munafò is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at the University of Bath, where he leads strategic planning and the delivery of academic priorities, oversees organizational resourcing, provides institutional leadership for equity, diversity and inclusion, and supports senior-level external engagement. His research spans biological psychology and metascience. He has particular expertise in the relationship between health behaviors—such as tobacco and alcohol use—and physical and mental health outcomes, and has worked closely with policymakers, influencing policy at national and international levels.
Prior to joining the University of Bath, Munafò was Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture at the University of Bristol, where he served as Co-Director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group and as an MRC Investigator in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit. Alongside his academic career, he has held roles beyond the university sector, including as a rowing coach for Oxford University Women’s Boat Club and the Great Britain Under-23 team, and as an officer in the British Army Reserve.
Munafò has a longstanding interest in research quality and the systems that shape it. In 2019, he co-founded the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and now serves as its Executive Director. He leads a major Research England–funded initiative to accelerate the adoption of open research practices across UK higher education. He also chairs the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neurosciences and Mental Health Board and the CHDI Foundation Independent Statistical Standing Committee. He completed his undergraduate degree in psychology and philosophy at the University of Oxford, followed by an MSc and PhD in health psychology at the University of Southampton.
“I’ve long advocated for the importance of open research—and transparency in general —in academia, as a way to drive both quality and trust. At a time when universities are having to adapt to a changing world, there is a real opportunity to embed these principles of openness and transparency,” Munafo said. “For that reason, I’m delighted by this opportunity to contribute to the work of the Center for Open Science.”
With Bourg and Munafò joining the Board, COS is well positioned to carry forward its True North of Lifecycle Open Science, demonstrating what works, strengthening the infrastructure and incentives that support it, and promoting sustained adoption across disciplines and geographies. We are grateful for their willingness to serve and energized by the expertise they bring as we advance research that is open, rigorous, and trustworthy.
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About the Center for Open Science
Founded in 2013, the Center for Open Science (COS) is a nonprofit culture change organization with a mission to increase openness, integrity, and trustworthiness of scientific research. COS pursues this mission by building communities around open science practices, supporting metascience research, and developing and maintaining free, open source software tools, including the Open Science Framework (OSF). Learn more at cos.io.
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