See behind the scenes of research at the University of York.
Join us on Thursday 3 July and you'll get the chance to explore laboratories, research and teaching spaces on campus.
Open spaces for 2025
Two ways to visit the venues
Venues open on campus
These spaces have drop-in capacity, so you can visit anytime between 2-4 pm:
- Archaeology PalaeoHub
- Archives Reading Room, Borthwick Institute for Archives
- Arts Rights Truth art exhibition
- Clinical Simulation Unit, Health Sciences
- The Creativity Lab
- The Sustainability Clinic and Baroness Hale Clinic
- YorCreate
These spaces can only be visited on one of the bookable tours:
Drop-in spaces
Archaeology PalaeoHub
Room: DS/008
Archaeology PalaeoHub is one of our Department's teaching and research spaces dedicated to the study of human and animal remains. The room will be open to anybody interested in palaeopathology (the evidence of ancient disease on bones), where we'll show examples of fractured human bones from archaeological contexts and X-rays recently taken of those examples with our newly acquired radiography system.
Archives Reading Room, Borthwick Institute for Archives
Room: First floor of the Burton Library, within the main University Library building
Did you know we have 945 cubic metres of unique documents covering 1000 years of history and 40 countries, right here on campus? That's in addition to 40,000 rare books. Find out how primary source material can support your research, and see some of our treasures from the collections at this drop-in event.
Arts Rights Truth art exhibition
Room: P/T/007
Art Rights Truth (ART) contends that collaborations between artists and activists can both represent and inform new ways of working and thinking, and thereby help create powerful new human rights languages, idioms and practices.
Research is focused on five areas: Covid Legacies, Localising Human Rights in York, Imaginaries of Social and Environmental Justice, Reimagining Turtle Island / Canada, and Narratives of the Future in Colombia.
Clinical Simulation Unit, Health Sciences
Room: ATB/007, Seebohm Rowntree Building
The Clinical Simulation Unit (CSU) at the University of York is a purpose-built education facility in the Seebohm Rowntree Building. It provides the perfect environment in which healthcare practitioners and students can develop and enhance their clinical skills.
Visit the CSU and see the high-fidelity manikins, Virtual reality health professional education platforms and video feedback equipment in the purpose-built simulated healthcare environment and talk to experienced teaching staff about the pedagogy of this teaching approach.
The Creativity Lab
Room: LFA/103
The Creativity Lab is a space in the University Library, with facilities focused on supporting all with Digital Creativity and providing access to emerging technologies. We offer workshops, equipment loans, and one-on-one support appointments around technology such as 3D modelling, video/audio editing, VR/AR, animation etc. We also run a successful podcasting studio. We can support you in learning new tools and creative outputs for your research, teaching or study. Come along to chat to us about our equipment and how we can help you learn new digital skills.
The Sustainability Clinic and Baroness Hale Clinic
Room: MSD/R/B10
The Sustainability Clinic is a purpose-built teaching space designed specifically for students taking the Sustainability Clinic module. The Sustainability Clinic is a module which is open to all final year undergraduate and taught Master's students from any discipline. The space is designed to facilitate informal discussion and collaboration as students work together on sustainability issues provided by NGOs, small businesses, the Council and schools.
The Baroness Hale Clinic is a functioning legal office led by a Director who is also a qualified solicitor. The Clinic provides free legal advice to members of the public. The advice is given in writing by students taking part in the Clinic under the supervision of experienced, qualified lawyers.
YorCreate
Room: LFA/132
YorCreate is a makerspace based in the Fairhurst building in the Library and is open to all University staff. A makerspace is a place where people can come together to work on creative projects, sharing ideas, expertise, and equipment, and YorCreate is designed to be a space in the Library for people to explore turning digital creations into physical ones, furthering their digital and creative skills in the process.
YorCreate has 3D printers, a Cricut digital cutter, glue guns, and a range of crafting supplies. Access to the space (outside of this event) is granted once people have attended an induction covering the health and safety and use of the space. Use of YorCreate and the supplies within is free to all University staff and students. People have used the space to create replicas for communicating research, custom plastic parts for lab equipment, trophies for awards, and a whole range of other things!
Tour-only spaces
Inside Plant Science: Department of Biology growth facilities
Join a tour of plant growth facilities in the biology department with Horticulture Manager Jason Daff and learn about how the facility supports a range of plant science activities. Researchers from the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) will be on hand to explain their aims to realise the potential of plants, from developing sustainable food crops and biofuels to advancing plants for medicines.
Institute for Safe Autonomy
From driverless cars and remotely monitored ships, to robotic arms and virtual assistants – new technologies which can learn and solve problems independently are transforming the way we live, travel and work. At the Institute for Safe Autonomy (ISA) our mission is to ensure that these systems, their software, and their communications are safe.
Our facility combines a range of experimental laboratories in robotics, advanced communications and quantum technologies, providing indoor and outdoor research and test spaces for autonomous systems operating on the ground, underwater and in the air.