Research software engineering is the use of

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

practices in research applications. The term was proposed in a research paper in 2010 in response to an empirical survey on tools used for software development in research projects.C.R. Prause, R. Reiners, S. Dencheva. Empirical Study of Tool Support in Highly Distributed Research Projects. 5th International Conference on Global Software Engineer (ICGSE), Princeton, NJ, USA, pp. 23–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICGSE.2010.13 It started to be used in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 2012, when it was needed to define the type of software development needed in research. This focuses on

reproducibility Reproducibility, also known as replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or in a ...

, reusability, and accuracy of data analysis and applications created for research.

Support

Various type of associations and organisations have been created around this role to support the creation of posts in universities and research institutes. In 2014 a Research Software Engineer Association was created in UK, which attracted 160 members in the first three months. Other countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and the USA followed creating similar communities and there are similar efforts being pursued in Asia, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...

, and Belgium. In January 2021 the International Council of RSE Associations was introduced. UK counts almost 30 universities and institutes with groups that provide access to software expertise to different areas of research. Additionally, the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...

created a Research Software Engineer fellowship to promote this role and help the creation of RSE groups across UK, with calls in 2015, 2017, and 2020. The world first RSE conference took place in UK in September 2016, it was repeated in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and is planned again for 2020. In 2019 the first national RSE conferences in Germany and the Netherlands were held, next editions were planned for 2020 and then cancelled. The SORSE (A Series of Online Research Software Events) community was established in late‑2020 in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and ran its first online event on 2September 2020.

References

External links

SORSE — A Series of Online Research Software Events
— listing of online events tailored for the COVID-19 era
Research Software Engineers: State of the Nation Report 2017

Research Software Alliance (ReSA)
(international)
Society of Research Software Engineering
(UK)
US RSE Association
Software engineering {{computer-stub

Support

See also

References

Further reading

External links