By Steve Crouch, Consultancy Leader.

The Institute's Open Call for projects helps researchers get the most out of the software they develop.

We are working the QuBIc research group at the University of Oxford to increase the uptake and transparency of their BASIL and FABBER MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) software. The Institute reviewed QuBIc's code, documentation and tutorials to find ways in which they could be improved. We advised on how to make the software more understandable to users, and how to make the code more configureable and maintainable, by improving the readability of the code and publishing its architecture. Working closely with the software's developers, the Institute will continue to help them refine these aspects, as well as the architecture of the code and its accessibility for others.

Last year’s Open Calls brought benefits to a number of projects, such as the Imperial College Lower Limb Model, BoneJ, and Forest Growth SRC where we helped the project to run biological simulations ten times faster than was previously possible. We've also been helping research software projects such as LabBook and DawnScience each looking to expand its software userbase.

If your project produces research software and you'd like us to assist, why not submit an application to the Open Call? The next deadline for submissions is 25 April 2014. Perhaps we can help your project too!