Verena Heise is currently a freelance researcher, trainer and consultant for Open Science. She is a molecular biologist, neuroscientist and epidemiologist by training with degrees from the University of Heidelberg and the University of Oxford. After many years in the UK she returned to Germany in 2020 for a Research Fellowship at Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg. Her research now focuses on meta-research to investigate how Open Science practices improve reliability of research findings, with a focus on biomedical sciences. In addition to her research, Verena is passionate about reducing research waste through education and developing infrastructure. One of her current projects is Road2Openness, an Open Science self-assessment tool for research performing organisations. Verena is also involved in several grassroots initiatives such as the German Reproducibility Network to instigate much-needed cultural change towards a more open, reliable and inclusive research system.