Research Software Engineer Network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Electronics and Computer Sci
Abstract
The term "Research Software Engineer" (RSE) was coined in 2012 as a step towards creating an identity for a role that - despite making a fundamental contribution to research - lacked any real recognition. In only three years, RSEs have begun to achieve recognition in the UK research community, RSE Groups have sprung up at universities around the country, and RSE activities have attracted worldwide attention. The UK leads the world in understanding the importance of the RSE role to research.
The RSE community grows with each success, but this also increases the difficulty of ensuring adequate communication and sharing occurs across groups, and this increases the risk of duplicating effort and even repeating mistakes. We must invest into administering and organising across the RSE community if we are to extract the greatest value from the UK's investment into RSEs and maintain our position as a world leader in this field.
The RSE community grows with each success, but this also increases the difficulty of ensuring adequate communication and sharing occurs across groups, and this increases the risk of duplicating effort and even repeating mistakes. We must invest into administering and organising across the RSE community if we are to extract the greatest value from the UK's investment into RSEs and maintain our position as a world leader in this field.
Planned Impact
RSE Fellows will benefit from having instant access to the accumulated experience of the RSE community, including the experience of the RSE Leaders network who will have faced very similar issues to those faced by the Fellows.
RSE organisations will benefit from the sharing that the RSEN will engender and the administration assistance that the network will provide.
RSEs will benefit because the organisations that represent them will be able to achieve their goals more efficiently. Ultimately this will lead to their recognition and reward within the research community.
Policymakers and research stakeholders will benefit from access to an annual "state of the nation" report about RSEs, which can be used to understand the impact of RSEs and how best to support them.
By increasing the number of people with skills in both research and software engineering, the commercial sector will benefit from a wider talent pool from which to employ.
The greater public and the UK economy will benefit from advanced research that will result from supporting RSEs and providing the recognition and reward they deserve for their contribution to research.
RSE organisations will benefit from the sharing that the RSEN will engender and the administration assistance that the network will provide.
RSEs will benefit because the organisations that represent them will be able to achieve their goals more efficiently. Ultimately this will lead to their recognition and reward within the research community.
Policymakers and research stakeholders will benefit from access to an annual "state of the nation" report about RSEs, which can be used to understand the impact of RSEs and how best to support them.
By increasing the number of people with skills in both research and software engineering, the commercial sector will benefit from a wider talent pool from which to employ.
The greater public and the UK economy will benefit from advanced research that will result from supporting RSEs and providing the recognition and reward they deserve for their contribution to research.
| Description | The RSEN began in January 2016. It provides support that has caused a significant increase in RSE activities. We quickly recruited a coordinator for the project and she has provided the logistical support the RSE community sorely needed. This has meant that from 2016 there has been a huge increase in the number of activities taking place in the RSE community and the outcomes from those activities being better publicised. One of the beneficiaries of the RSEN is the RSE Leaders group, which has met regularly every six months thanks to the RSEN's support, and even included an international meeting which attracted people from 11 countries. This has allowed the EPSRC's RSE Fellows to better integrated into the RSE community and is leading to the creation of guidance and sharing of materials. A second international RSE Leaders meeting was held in 2020, which brought together groups from around the world to discuss the effective running of RSE Groups and to develop new collaborations. The UKRSE Association's committee has met almost every month by Skype with six-monthly, face-to-face meetings. This is a huge increase in interaction over the previous committee due to an increase in interest about the RSE campaign thanks in part to the RSEN. The early support provided to the UKRSE Association by the RSEN finally came to fruition in 2019 with the founding of the Society of Research Software Engineering as a charitable incorporated organisation. The Society took over the role of the UKRSE Association and formalised it. With the ability to hold funds and hire staff, the Society of RSE is the learned society for RSEs, which will ensure that they are supported in academia for decades to come if not longer. The greatest impact from the RSEN so far is undoubtably the RSE conference which has brought hundreds of people together from many different countries. This highly successful conference could not have taken place without the RSEN's initial support, both in providing seed funding and in providing organisational effort. The conference alone did more to promote the RSE cause than much of the work completed thus far in the campaign. Its impact was felt internationally across a number of disciplines. The conference ran with in person events in 2016, 2017 and 2019. The Coronavirus lockdown prevented the conference from taking place in person in 2020 but Claire Wyatt, originally recruited to staff the RSEN, stepped in and organised the "Series of Online RSE (SORSE) series". This international collaboration between RSE Associations has since organised around 50 webinars attended by up to 100 people from around the world. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Microsoft RSE Cloud Fellowship |
| Organisation | Microsoft Research |
| Country | Global |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We were approached by Microsoft Research who wanted to fund a Fellowship for Research Software Engineers (RSEs) who use cloud technology. Due to our central position in the RSE Community and the respect the community shows for our work, Microsoft Research asked us to run the competition to select the Fellows. We prepared the competition, wrote the rules and terms and conditions, promoted it to our community, short-listed applicants and ran the judging panel that selected the final applicants. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Microsoft Research provided the funding for the Fellowship and covered out costs for running the selection. They provided advice on how to recruit the Cloud Fellows, promoted the competition, took part in the judging and ran an inaugural meeting for the successful applicants. |
| Impact | A set of 13 RSE Cloud Fellows who network with each other and promote best practice for using cloud computing in research: https://www.software.ac.uk/rse-cloud-awardees. The collaboration is multidisciplinary spanning computer science, engineering, life sciences, informatics, mathematics, high-performance computing, neuroscience, safety and accident investigation, high-energy physics, biomedical research, and research software engineering. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Society of RSE |
| Organisation | Society of Research Software Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The initial work conducted by the RSEN allowed the UKRSE Association to grow and it was this organisation that was formalised as the Society of RSE. The funds for the Society were generated mainly by the RSE Conference which the RSEN started. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Society of RSE is a new learned society, one set up specifically to support RSEs and ensure that the software used by researchers is fit for purpose. The Society holds funds and can employ staff as an independent body (a charitable incorporated organisation). This will ensure that the growing RSE community continues to have a central organisation around which RSEs can congregate and a body to lobby on their behalf. |
| Impact | SORSE (Series of Online RSE events): a multidisciplinary webinar series. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | First conference of Research Software Engineers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 202 people from 14 different countries attended the first ever conference of Research Software Engineers. This shows the shear level of interest in this new discipline that it can attract such a widespread audience on its first outing. The conference sold out over a month before the event took place and generated enough income to assure the following year's conference. It was obvious that the community was intent on the conference being a success: almost all publicity was gained through the actions of the UK RSE Association's members. Feedback from the conference was excellent, with 95% of attendees expecting to attend the next conference and 100% reporting that they would recommend the conference to others. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://ukrse.github.io/conf2016 |
| Description | International RSE leaders meeting - Alan Turing Institute, London, 30-31 January 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In January 2018, leaders of Research Software Engineering groups, networks and initiatives from around the world gathered in London for the first ever International RSE Leaders workshop, organised by UK RSE. The event generated huge enthusiasm and progress towards the goal of improving access to software expertise in research by pooling knowledge, coordinating efforts and establishing collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://researchsoftware.org/2018/04/23/int-rsel-workshop.html |
| Description | Introduction to Research Software Engineers community for Internet2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Simon Hettrick was invited to summarise the UK's work with the RSE community at Internet2's cyberpracticioners' workshop. Internet2 brought together many of the leading universities in the US to discuss how to support people who work in research but write code, not papers. Interest in the talk was such that it was extended into the second day of the workshop so that attendees would have time to ask their questions. Following the workshop a report was written by the organisers that detailed the UK's world-leading role in support this vital group of people working in research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://meetings.internet2.edu/2016-07-cyberpractitioner-workshop/ |
| Description | New RSE website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The original UK RSE Association's website was put together on a best effort basis. As this community has grown in number and significance, it badly needed a facelift so as the better represent the work of the Association. Over late 2016 to early 2017, a small team worked to completely update the website. With over 10,000 people visiting the site in 2016 alone, it was vital that we updated the site to continue to grow visitor numbers and publicise the RSE campaign and the UK's world-leading role in it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.rse.ac.uk |
| Description | Panel on data science careers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following the success of the first RSE conference, Simon Hettrick was invited by the Moore and Sloan Foundations to attend a summit for the Moore-Sloan Data Science Environments, held in New York in November 2016. The panel was focussed on careers for Data Scientists, but they widened the discussion to include Simon's focus on Research Software Engineers. The panel provided an excellent opportunity to increase recognition of Research Software Engineers across a broad swathe of leading US universities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://msdse.org/summit/ |
| Description | RSE Conference 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The RSE conference brought together 224 attendees from 14 different countries. It saw significant and impactful presence on social media, attracted sponsorship and generated an operating profit that made the following year's conference a definite prospect. Almost half of the participants who attended filled out a feedback form and over 48% of them rated the conference 5 out of 5 (and 45% rated it 4 out of 5). The first informal meeting of international RSEs occurred at the meeting which directly led to the RSE International Leaders meeting taking place the following January. Most importantly, the conference built on the success of the inaugural RSE Conference in 2016 and established the UK as the leading country for recognising and support RSEs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://rse.ac.uk/conf2017 |
| Description | RSE Conference 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The third RSE Conference took place at the University of Birmingham on 3-4 September 2018. The move of venue allowed the conference to attract a 50% larger audience than the previous venue. 300 tickets were made available at first. Final numbers for the conference were 344 attendees from 14 different countries. It attracted top-tier industry sponsors which allowed the conference to generate a significant profit which will support the Society of RSE. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://rse.ac.uk/conf2018/ |
| Description | RSE Fellowship Launch |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 63 senior academics, university leaders, heads of research organisations and industry representatives attended a launch of the EPSRC's Research Software Engineer (RSE) Fellowship at the Royal Society, and took part in two, hour long debates about how to support RSEs in UK academia. This significantly increased recognition of the RSE role across the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | RSE International Leaders Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A two-day workshop bringing together leaders of RSE groups and communities around the world to help each other improve access to software expertise in research by pooling knowledge, coordinating efforts and establishing collaboration amongst our wider networks. The workshop brought together RSE leaders from around the world (Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, UK, USA). The participants discussed improving the ability of RSE leaders to influence funding and career structures in their countries, support the establishment of further national RSE networks, instigating international collaboration and coordination on RSE matters, connecting RSE leaders to spark collaborations between them and their onward networks and understanding similarities and differences in the RSE landscape and funding between countries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | RSE leaders meeting - Cardiff, November 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The last leaders meeting in 2018 took place in Cardiff on 20 November 2018. At the meeting, RSE leaders met and discussed the RSE Community in Wales and discussed communications and promoting the RSE role. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | RSE leaders meeting - Oxford, January 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The RSE leaders network meets every six months to discuss strategy for setting up and running a Research Software Group at a university or other research organistation. This meeting was attended by 21 RSE leaders who were introduced to the new UK RSE Association Chairs, discussed strategy for the new UK RSE website, discussed survey results from the 2016 RSE survey and shared ideas on training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | RSE leaders meeting - Sheffield, July 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The RSE leaders network meets every six months to discuss strategy for setting up and running a Research Software Group at a university or other research organisation. This meeting was attended by 17 RSE leaders who were introduced to the new UK RSE Association Chairs, discussed the creation of an RSE career path. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |