The growth of Research Software Engineering and its vital role in research
Simon Hettrick
12 December 2023 - ETH seminar, online - @sjh5000 ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195
www.software.ac.uk
If we want software sustainability as default behaviour we must change academic culture
Is software important?
Research software is software that you use to generate, process or analyse results that you intend to appear in a publication.
It can be anything from a few lines of code written by yourself, to a professionally developed software package.
Use software
Fundamental to results
69%
92%
n=417
n=594
"Not at all"
"Vital"
n=594
Who is writing all the software?
Ascension, John Singleton Copley, Public Domain
A brief history of Research Software Engineers
2012: birth of a name
https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2016-08-17-not-so-brief-history-research-software-engineers
Research
Software
Engineering
Research
Software
Engineer
The Research Software Engineer is a new role in research.
It combines an intimate understanding of research with professional software engineering expertise
2013: campaign begins &
first RSE Group
1428
members
March 2019
2014: the UKRSE Association
2016: the RSE Conference
~10,000 RSEs worldwide
Image courtesy Ian Cosden
The Society of Research Software Engineering was founded on the belief that a world which relies on software must recognise the people who develop it
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come
- Victor Hugo
https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2021-01-28-farewell-rses-reflecting-our-progress-and-remaining-barriers
What's the impact?
RSE Conference 2022
2013
2023
https://society-rse.org/community/rse-groups/
How many RSEs
in your group?
https://github.com/softwaresaved/RSE-Group-Leaders-Survey-2023_Python
Describe demand for
your services
https://github.com/softwaresaved/RSE-Group-Leaders-Survey-2023_Python
https://github.com/SimonHettrick/parsing_rse_job_adverts
Adverts on jobs.ac.uk with "Research Software Engineer" in the title
Research software engineers who port and maintain these codes and optimise system performance are a crucial part of operational infrastructure
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-compute-review/the-future-of-compute-report-of-the-review-of-independent-panel-of-experts
Universities should embrace Research Software Engineering as an intellectually and academically creative collaborative discipline, especially in health, with realistic salaries and recognition.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/624ea0ade90e072a014d508a/goldacre-review-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis.pdf
You can use the funding for:
- development and re-engineering of existing software
- maintenance activities
- activities that widen participation in development and maintenance.
https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/software-for-research-communities/
What next?
If we don't recognise the work that is vital to research,
we limit our ability to conduct research
Software
(Parts of) books
Journal articles
Physical artefacts
Exhibitions and performances
Other documents
Digital artefacts
www.hidden-ref.org
120 submissions in total
With the emergence of software as the pre-eminent research tool used across all disciplines, comes the realisation that a significant majority of results are based, ultimately, on the skill of the experts who design and build that software.
- RSE State Of The Nation, 2017
Thank you!
@sjh5000
ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195, EPSRC Grant no: EP/S021779/1
Licence
© Simon Hettrick. These slides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Access these slides: https://bit.ly/3TsPrrB