Our impact

We helped turn an overlooked role into a recognised international profession. We continue to strengthen its people, institutions and community infrastructure.

From overlooked role to international profession

Research increasingly depended on software, but the people who developed and maintained it often lacked a recognised professional identity, appropriate career paths and a community through which to organise and advocate for their work.

The term Research Software Engineer (RSE) was coined at our 2012 Collaborations Workshop during a discussion about this systemic problem. In 2013, we convened the first workshop for people who identified as RSEs. Fifty-six participants attended and voted unanimously to establish the UK Research Software Engineers Association, initially chaired by the Institute’s then Deputy Director, Simon Hettrick.

We continued working with the emerging community to build the institutions and infrastructure needed for the profession to grow. We established the RSE Leaders Network, secured funding for the first dedicated RSE Conference and supported the UK association as it developed into the independent Society of Research Software Engineering.

The Leaders Network supported the growth of institutional RSE groups from one at UCL to around 40 across the UK. The first RSE Conference attracted 202 people from 14 countries in 2016. RSECon now attracts more than 400 attendees and generates income that helps sustain the Society’s wider activities.

“Learning about the RSE role was a bit of a revelation, and gave me a clear sense of the direction my career could take.”

Kim Martin, Institute Fellow, writing about developing RSE capacity in South Africa

The movement has expanded internationally, with national and regional RSE associations now operating across Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and the United States. We have supported the development of many of these associations and facilitated international coordination. The wider profession is now estimated to include approximately 10,000 RSEs.

Our involvement continues through support for the Society, RSECon and international collaboration, alongside work on training, inclusion and career development. In 2026, we are also co-delivering the new International Research Software Conference, co-located with RSECon.

Read more about the origins of Research Software Engineering.

Making the international RSE workforce visible

Developing appropriate careers, policies and support for Research Software Engineers requires reliable evidence about who they are, what they do and the conditions in which they work.

Since 2016, we have coordinated the International RSE Survey with national RSE communities. The survey examines roles, employment, working practices, career development, job satisfaction and demographics, enabling associations, institutions, funders and policymakers to understand the profession through shared evidence and track how it changes over time.

The 2022 survey received more than 1,000 responses from around the world. The 2026 survey received more than 950 responses from 55 countries and was available in English, French, German and Spanish, widening participation and supporting international comparison.

The data is released openly, alongside an interactive dashboard covering ten years of survey results. This enables communities to explore their own workforce, compare experiences across countries and over time, and build stronger cases for recognition, investment and improved working conditions.

“It’s such a rich data set that we can use to advance the research software engineering movement.”

Simon Hettrick, Director of Strategy at the Institute

The survey has turned experiences that were previously dispersed or anecdotal into a shared international evidence base that the RSE community can use to understand itself, demonstrate its contribution and advocate for change.

Addressing inequality in the RSE profession

We work with underrepresented research software professionals to ensure that efforts to improve inclusion are shaped by the people most affected.

As Research Software Engineering has grown as a profession, evidence and individual experiences have highlighted a persistent problem: not everyone has the same opportunities to enter, remain in or progress within the field.

A conventional response might have been to produce guidance based primarily on existing institutional approaches. Instead, through the InclusiveRSE project, we brought together people from underrepresented groups to help define the problems themselves.

Research partners contributed directly to the research questions, discussed how exclusion appeared in recruitment, career progression and workplace culture, and helped assess which responses were likely to make a meaningful difference. This revealed where apparently neutral processes could reproduce existing inequalities and where standard institutional approaches did not reflect people’s lived experiences.

“The structured distribution of roles within our team has played a significant role in fostering equity in participation.”

Ruth Nanjala, InclusiveRSE research partner

Their contributions shaped the project’s findings and the practical guidance being developed for RSE leaders, institutions and professional communities. The process also demonstrated the value of co-production: inclusion work is more credible and useful when people affected by the issues have genuine influence over the response.

The project is now moving from evidence-gathering to practical application, supporting the community in developing approaches to recruitment, career development, and workplace culture that are informed by both evidence and lived experience.

Our Fellowship Programme supports people turning ideas into lasting change within their domains and communities.

Creating an international training community for librarians

As research became increasingly dependent on data and software, librarians were increasingly expected to support digital research without always having access to appropriate computational training.

In 2015, Institute Fellow James Baker used his Fellowship funding to launch the first Library Carpentry workshops. In their first year, the workshops attracted 59 participants from 14 London institutions and had an estimated wider reach of 200–250 librarians.

The initiative spread across four continents and, in 2018, became an official lesson programme within The Carpentries. What began as one Fellow’s response to a skills gap developed into an international community that continues to help library and information professionals work confidently with software and data.

“Seed funding from the Institute helped turn Library Carpentry into an enormous, global success.”

James Baker, Institute Fellow

Building shared leadership for rainbowR

rainbowR was created to connect and support LGBTQ+ people who code in R, but responsibility for maintaining the community initially rested largely with its founder, Ella Kaye.

Through her Institute Fellowship, Ella received flexible funding and mentorship from community leader and Institute Fellow Yo Yehudi. This enabled rainbowR’s emerging leadership team to meet for a dedicated work sprint, develop its constitution and agree on how responsibility would be shared.

As Ella reflected, rainbowR moved from being largely run by her to having “an elected leadership team, a constitution, and increased engagement.”

The Fellowship helped turn a founder-led initiative into a community with clearer governance, wider participation and stronger foundations for the future.

We develop training while enabling institutions and communities to meet their own changing software-skills needs.

Creating a sustainable UK training community

When we became involved with Software Carpentry, now part of The Carpentries, in 2011, access to practical software-development training for UK researchers was limited.

We contributed online teaching materials and, in April 2012, helped deliver the first UK Software Carpentry workshop. We began coordinating UK instructor and training community activity in 2013 and supported universities and research groups to establish their own workshops and institutional partnerships.

We also recognised that meeting demand required more than teaching individual learners: it required developing new instructors. Since 2015, we have taught over 28 workshops and helped train over 500 instructors in the UK and internationally. UK Carpentries workshops grew from seven in 2012 to 89 in 2019, showing how investment in instructors and institutions created capacity far beyond the workshops delivered directly by the Institute. Read more about our partnership with The Carpentries.

“The Institute shares many goals and values with Software Carpentry, and we believe this partnership will benefit both organisations.”

Greg Wilson, founder of Software Carpentry

Bridging the gap beyond introductory coding

Introductory courses help researchers begin programming, but collaborative research projects demand more advanced skills and practices. These include testing, code review, software architecture and modular code development, documentation and version control, and knowing how to apply them while working as part of a team.

We developed an open Intermediate Research Software Skills course to address this gap. Between 2021 and 2026, over 500 Research Software Engineers completed the five-day course through 28 workshops at 15 institutions. Research organisations in the UK, Europe, and the US have since adapted and delivered the materials. We also developed an industry-focused version with AstraZeneca, delivering it in 2022, 2023 and 2025.

Recognising that people cannot always commit to a five-day course, we worked with Imperial College London through the UNIVERSE-HPC project to create Byte-sized RSE. Between 2022 and 2025, three series offered 22 short, interactive sessions on topics including testing, code review, packaging, software citation, user experience and environmentally sustainable computing. Each session was accompanied by an openly available podcast episode, allowing people to engage with individual topics as needed.

We also helped develop Building Better Research Software for the UK Reproducibility Network, a two-day course designed as the next step after Software Carpentry. It teaches researchers how to structure, test, document, share and reuse their code, connecting practical software development with open, reproducible and FAIR research. The course has been tested through multiple workshops and released openly through The Carpentries Incubator so that instructors and institutions can adapt it for their own communities.

Together, these initiatives have created flexible routes for researchers to progress beyond introductory coding: from focused sessions on individual skills to structured courses covering the collaborative development of reliable, reusable research software.

Bridging the skills gap between education and industry

Graduates entering software engineering and data science roles may have strong technical foundations but limited experience of applying them within professional development teams.

Working with DiRAC, we conducted 26 interviews with employers, recent graduates and industry stakeholders. The research found that employers were less concerned about graduates’ fundamental technical knowledge than their practical and professional skills, including teamwork, communication, project management, client interaction and working within established development processes. Smaller employers often had fewer resources to address these gaps themselves.

We used the findings to develop the Industry Skills Training Bootcamp. Rather than teaching coding in isolation, the course places participants in teams working with an inherited codebase, incomplete information and changing requirements. They practise requirements gathering, agile development, version control, code review, testing, communication and collaborative decision-making in a realistic project environment.

The course was developed through three increasingly substantial pilots, culminating in a five-day programme for 12 undergraduate and postgraduate students in March 2026. Participants rated its effectiveness as a learning experience an average of 8.5 out of 10. The openly available materials are now being refined for wider delivery, including potential versions for early-career professionals, SMEs and doctoral researchers.

The project demonstrates how research can do more than describe a skills gap: it can provide the evidence needed to design, test and share a practical response.

“I took two modules on software design […], and I can confidently say I’ve learnt more in one day.”

Industry Skills Training Bootcamp pilot participant, March 2026

We work with research communities, infrastructure providers, employers, funders and policymakers to build evidence, develop shared standards and turn research into practical change.

Making research software easier to cite

Software has historically been difficult to cite consistently. This makes the software underlying research harder to identify and reproduce and can deny developers appropriate recognition.

We supported work to turn software-citation principles into something researchers could use in everyday practice. This included early advocacy for citation files, community discussions about a common standard, and funding and collaboration to develop the Citation File Format.

In 2021, GitHub introduced built-in support for Citation File Format files. Researchers can now obtain a formatted citation directly from a software repository. Zenodo can import the information when archiving software, while Zotero can add it to a researcher’s reference library.

A community proposal had become part of the mainstream infrastructure used to conduct and communicate research.

Turning FAIR principles into practice for software

The original FAIR Principles transformed thinking about research data, but software differs from data in important ways. It evolves, depends on other software and must often be executed rather than simply accessed.

We worked through the international FAIR for Research Software Working Group to develop principles designed specifically for research software. The FAIR4RS Principles were published in 2022 and provide a shared framework for making software findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Within two years, the principles had been cited more than 200 times and were informing funding calls, metadata guidance, assessment tools and disciplinary initiatives. These included a German Research Foundation funding call and FAIR-IMPACT’s work to create automated software-assessment metrics.

The case demonstrates how collaboratively developed principles can influence policy, infrastructure and practical tools across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Building the evidence base for research software policy

Decisions about research software were historically made with limited evidence about how widely software was used, who developed it or what support researchers needed.

In 2014, we conducted the first large-scale survey of software use across UK research-intensive universities. Based on responses from 417 researchers at 15 universities, the study found that 92% used research software, 69% said their work would not be practical without it, and 56% developed their own software. The findings gave the research community widely cited evidence that software was fundamental to research, while exposing gaps in training, recognition and funding.

We have since undertaken more detailed studies for research funders. A UKRI-commissioned study of software and skills for research computing in the UK combined a survey of more than 400 researchers and research professionals with eight focus groups, stakeholder interviews and international analysis. It identified barriers including limited funding for software and its people, unequal access to computing infrastructure and insufficiently developed career pathways.

Together, these studies have helped shift research software from an overlooked operational concern to a strategic issue for funders and infrastructure providers. They provide evidence for investment, workforce planning and the development of national research software policy.

We help research teams identify manageable changes that make their software more reliable, usable and sustainable.

Helping Ersilia build a contributor community

The Ersilia Open Source Initiative develops machine-learning tools to support drug discovery, particularly for neglected diseases and researchers in lower-resourced settings. Its founding team were scientists rather than professional software engineers and wanted independent guidance on improving their software.

Through our Research Software Healthcheck, we worked with the team on documentation, software sustainability and community development. The review helped Ersilia establish a channel through which users could test the software, provide feedback and contribute to its development.

The project subsequently built an active community of 25 people.

As co-founder Miquel Duran-Frigola explained in an interview: “I understood very quickly that the service was here to help, not to judge me.”

The Healthcheck gave the team practical priorities and greater confidence in opening its work to contributors.

Turning a single-developer codebase into a collaborative project

Sire is software used to model molecular interactions, including whether a potential drug will bind to a protein. It had grown into a substantial codebase understood almost entirely by its original developer, Christopher Woods.

To expand the project, Christopher needed to bring in other developers without personally controlling every change. Our software specialists worked with him to understand the code, restructure how development was managed and introduce processes that allowed work to be divided safely between contributors.

The collaboration helped transform Sire from a single-developer project into a multi-developer programme. It also enabled improved algorithms to run across a wider range of computing infrastructure.

The intervention did not simply improve the code: it helped its creator make the transition “from individual developer to software manager.”

We create spaces where people can share emerging work, find collaborators and turn ideas into sustained community initiatives.

Giving The Turing Way a platform to grow

In 2019, the Alan Turing Institute was developing an open handbook to help researchers make data-intensive research more reproducible. For the resource to succeed, it needed more than useful content: it needed contributors from different disciplines and professional communities.

We launched The Turing Way to the research software community at our 2019 Collaborations Workshop. Its team used a participatory session to introduce the project, review its early content with attendees and show people how they could contribute their own expertise.

The Workshop gave an emerging initiative a platform to reach potential users, contributors and collaborators. The project subsequently expanded beyond reproducibility to cover project design, collaboration, communication and ethical research.

By 2025, The Turing Way had grown into a global, community-led initiative involving more than 450 co-authors and over 300 handbook chapters.

Its success belongs to the people who have led and contributed to it. Its journey also demonstrates what the Collaborations Workshop is designed to enable: bringing an idea into a wider community and creating opportunities for that community to help shape what it becomes.

Turning workshop ideas into community initiatives

The Turing Way is one example of a collaboration that begins or develops through the Collaborations Workshop. Its discussion sessions, mini-workshops and Hack Days give participants time to explore shared problems, recruit contributors and start developing practical responses.

Other initiatives emerging from CW activities include CarpentriesOffline, which supports computational training where internet access is limited, and Coding Confessions, which encourages researchers and developers to discuss mistakes and treat failure as a normal part of research and software development.

Participants report beginning an average of two new collaborations through attending the Workshop. Together, these examples show that CW is not simply an annual event: it provides an environment in which people can test ideas, build relationships, establish work that continues afterwards, and influence and drive policy change.

We work to ensure that research recognises a wider range of people, skills and outputs, and that more people can access the opportunities and support needed to contribute.

Making overlooked research contributions visible

Although the Research Excellence Framework permits different kinds of outputs, 98% of the outputs submitted to REF2021 were academic publications. Software, datasets, methods, training materials and many of the people who produce them remained comparatively invisible.

We first worked with the research software community and REF representatives to produce guidance for assessing software. In 2020, we then helped launch the Hidden REF as a national competition recognising overlooked research outputs and professional roles.

Its first competition received more than 120 submissions across 22 categories from at least 44 institutions, culminating in an awards ceremony attended by more than 130 people.

What began as a competition has developed into a wider research-culture campaign encompassing further competitions, festivals, publications, media engagement and advocacy for broader research assessment.

“Winning the Hidden REF brought my work to the attention of people at my university, and I believe it helped my work be selected for a REF impact case study.”

Professor Fiona Macpherson, 2021 Hidden REF winner

Opening research software to new audiences

Access to research software skills and careers can depend on whether someone has suitable training, institutional support or an established connection to the community.

We launched Research Software Camps in 2021 as online programmes combining practical workshops, panel discussions, curated resources and one-to-one support. Camps have covered research accessibility, moving beyond spreadsheets, intermediate coding, mental health, FAIR software, research technical professionals and careers in research software.

Across the first five Camps, more than 400 people participated, with 42% engaging with the Institute for the first time. Associated mentoring programmes provided one-to-one support to more than 50 researchers over two years.

The programme has also explored how language affects access to training. In 2025, the Careers and Skills in Research Software Camp included a Spanish workshop on reproducible publication tables using R and Quarto and a Ukrainian workshop introducing version control with Git, alongside its English-language programme.

By combining entry-level learning, career support, mentoring and multilingual delivery, Research Software Camps have created more accessible routes into research software skills and its wider professional community.

We identify opportunities to create change by combining ideas, expertise, investment, reach and infrastructure with others to create initiatives capable of changing practice across organisations, sectors and countries.

Creating a certification for environmentally responsible computing

Computational research has a significant environmental footprint, but research groups have lacked the kind of sustainability framework available to laboratories.

Institute Fellow Loïc Lannelongue developed Green DiSC, a free, open-access certification scheme that gives research groups and support teams a practical roadmap for reducing the environmental impact of their computing.

We helped shape, host and promote the scheme, providing an independent home from which it could reach organisations beyond a single university. In Loïc’s words, the Institute was “the ideal place for Green DiSC to land” and strengthened the framework’s independence and legitimacy.

In 2025, the first six teams from the UK and Europe achieved Bronze certification. They included four research groups and two support teams working across fields including cancer research, genomics and data science.

An idea developed through the Fellowship Programme had become a practical framework helping research organisations reduce the environmental impact of their computing.

“The SSI was the ideal place for Green DiSC to land and reinforced the independence and legitimacy of the framework.”

Dr Loïc Lannelongue, Green DiSC Lead and Institute Fellow

Establishing dedicated funding for research software maintenance

Research software can remain essential long after its original development funding ends. However, conventional grants frequently prioritise novel development over maintenance, documentation, governance and community support.

Supported by UKRI’s Digital Research Infrastructure programme, we launched the Research Software Maintenance Fund, a £4.8 million initiative dedicated to sustaining existing research software. The fund supports work such as reducing technical debt, improving documentation and governance, strengthening contributor communities and maintaining teams responsible for multiple software tools.

The response demonstrated the scale of unmet demand. The first round received 360 Expressions of Interest, substantially more than originally anticipated. It subsequently awarded just under £3 million to 13 projects, including software underpinning statistical computing, climate modelling, bioengineering, neuroscience and accessible data analysis.

Alongside sustaining critical software now, the programme is evaluating how to fund maintenance and development more effectively. It is creating an evidence base for future funders while demonstrating that maintaining established software is itself a valuable research investment.

“Software maintainers play a crucial role in enabling world-leading research and innovation, yet they often face substantial barriers to funding.”

Richard Gunn, UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure Programme Director

Building a European framework for research software quality

Research disciplines use different tools, standards and approaches to assess software quality. This can make it difficult to share effective practices or establish consistent expectations across research communities.

The Horizon Europe-funded EVERSE project brings together 18 partners across ten countries to develop a community-led framework for research software excellence. It works with five European Open Science Cloud Science Clusters covering environmental sciences, astronomy and particle physics, photon and neutron science, social sciences and humanities, and life sciences.

Institute staff contribute through EPCC and the University of Edinburgh. We are applying experience developed through our work on research software practice, FAIR software, quality assessment and community building. Institute Director Neil Chue Hong co-leads work on tools and services for software quality and FAIRness, while other Institute staff contribute to the project’s tools, guidance, training and community activities.

EVERSE has established a European Network of Research Software Quality and developed resources including the Research Software Quality Kit, the EVERSE Technology Radar and a training catalogue containing more than 80 resources. Together, these provide research communities with shared guidance and practical tools for evaluating and improving their software.

By combining expertise from national centres, research infrastructures and disciplinary communities, the partnership is laying the foundations for a future European Virtual Institute for Research Software Excellence.