The role of software

in research

Simon Hettrick

Deputy Director, Software Sustainability Institute

12 January 2017 - Form Follows Function workshop, Berlin    ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195

1. Why care about software?

Data

Results

*Refs [1]

Data

Results

Software

2. What is Software Sustainability?

"The  practices that allow software to continue to operate as expected in the future"

Software

Training

Community

Policy

Outreach

3. What's happened in the UK?

Software

Training

Community

Policy

Over 72 projects

All 7 Research Councils

Over 3000 learners

Over 100 courses

80 guides, ~200k views 

RSE campaign

Demographic studies

Finance and career studies

76 Fellows across domains

Over 20 workshops

Outreach

15,000 monthly visits

Vibrant Twitter community

200k

100k

0

2010

2013

2016

Annual visits

4. International links

In Europe

Knowledge Exchange workshop

and report, Sept 2015

Workshop on sustainability, The Hague, March 2017

bit.ly/KESustainabilityReport

Internationally

• CodeRefinery
• Science Gateway Institute
• Center for Trustworthy Scientific Cyberinfrastructure
• rOpenSci
• HEP Software Foundation
• Further four organisations currently awaiting board approval

5. Research Software Engineers

The people who write code, not papers

Growth of UKRSE Association

1. Adoption of the term "Research Software Engineer"

2. Association run by the community

3. Growth of RSE groups at universities 

4. Research funders adopting the term

5. The RSE Fellowship

6. RSE conference

Achievements

202 attendees

14 countries

Summary of topics
 

1. Why care about software

2. What is Software Sustainability

3. What has happened in the UK

4. International Links

5. Research Software Engineers

Slides: bit.ly/SoftwareJan17