Library, Museums and Press Staff
October 14, 2026

2026 Open Data Impact Awards Honor Researchers Advancing Discovery Through Open Data 

 

The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press has announced the recipients of the 2026 Open Data Impact Awards, recognizing researchers whose openly shared datasets demonstrate exceptional value in advancing scholarship, transparency and data reuse. 

Organized and funded in collaboration with the Data Science Institute and Delaware EPSCoR, the awards highlight the importance of making research data accessible for discovery, collaboration and future scholarship. By sharing their datasets, researchers extend the value of their work beyond the original study and create opportunities for others to build on their findings. 

The 2026 Open Data Impact Award recipients are: 

The award committee also recognized Qingwu Meng with an honorable mention for the dataset Data from: A Chemical Biostimulant Enhances Growth of Greenhouse Lettuce, But Not Some Cruciferous Vegetables, in Aerated Hydroponics. 

The recognized datasets span a range of disciplines, demonstrating how open research data can contribute to biomedical research, mental health and technology studies, and ecological monitoring. By making these resources available for reuse, the researchers support continued scientific inquiry and help ensure that valuable research outputs remain discoverable and accessible to scholars, students and the public. 

The Open Data Impact Awards reflect the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press’s commitment to advancing open scholarship and strengthening the research ecosystem by supporting practices that make knowledge more accessible, reusable and impactful. 

 

Library, Museums and Press staff member stands next to recent award winners. Each wearing event badges against a wood-paneled backdrop with potted plants.

Award committee members and award recipients at the 2026 Data Science Symposium in Newark, Delaware. From left to right are Daniel Peart of the University of Delaware Library, award recipient Ariel Alperstein, award recipient Michael Crossley, award recipient Moath Erqsous, and Amy Slocum of Delaware EPSCoR. The Open Data Impact Awards recognize researchers whose openly shared datasets demonstrate the value of open scholarship and the potential for broad research impact and reuse. Photo by Mike Gates.