We're thrilled to announce that on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, we will reveal a new brand identity and name for the Software Sustainability Institute.
This exciting change recognises the growth of the research software field and our evolving role over the last 15 years. We have worked hard to review our focus and priorities as part of this process, and our new identity reflects the work we do today, celebrates what we’ve achieved so far, and underpins our ambitions for the future.
Why we are changing
When the Institute was founded in 2010, research software was essential to research but received comparatively little attention or recognition. Our original name focused on one pressing challenge: making research software sustainable. This meant improving its quality, maintainability, and usability, and developing the skills and practices needed to support reliable and reproducible research.
Since then, research software has gained greater recognition as both a research output and an essential part of research infrastructure. Research Software Engineering has emerged as a profession, and institutions and funders are paying more attention to the people, skills, policies and investment that research software requires.
The Institute has played a central role in driving this progress. Through our work on Research Software Engineering, our Fellowship Programme, training, events, research and guidance, we have developed skills, improved practice, influenced policy and supported people to lead change. More recently, we have begun investing directly in maintaining important research software.
Significant challenges remain, including research reproducibility and integrity, equitable access, FAIR software and the maintenance of essential digital infrastructure. These issues are not fully captured by a name that can be interpreted narrowly in terms of software maintainability or environmental sustainability.
Our role now spans the whole research ecosystem, connecting the people who build and maintain software with the institutions and funders that shape how it is supported. By combining research, community, policy and practice, we strengthen research by advancing essential software and empowering the people behind it. Our new identity reflects this broader role and our ambition to ensure that research software is open, well-maintained and properly recognised.
What is changing, and what remains the same
Over the past year, we reviewed how we describe the Institute and its contribution to research. We gathered input from our staff, Fellows, stakeholders, and Advisory Board to identify what should carry forward into this next phase.
This process shaped our new name, positioning, visual identity, and changes to how we present our work online. The result builds on our history, reflects our experience and collaborative approach, and supports our aim to strengthen research software capability in the UK and internationally.
We remain the same Institute. Our motto, “Better Software, Better Research,” continues to express our purpose.
We will continue to deliver programmes, events, partnerships, and commitments, supported by the relationships and expertise built over the past 15 years. The rebrand will help us communicate our contribution more clearly as we build for the future.
What to expect
We will reveal our new name and visual identity on 1 September 2026, alongside an updated website and new brand assets.
From that date, the new identity will appear across our website, social media, publications, events, and other communications. Some changes will be immediate; we will update older resources and systems over time. We will contact key partners with guidance to update references to the Institute in their materials.
We are planning a proper celebration of the new identity in the autumn.
We are proud of what the Software Sustainability Institute and its community have achieved. Our new identity will build on that success and open an ambitious new phase for the Institute.
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For questions about our new identity, please contact us at info@software.ac.uk.
About us
The Institute strengthens research by advancing essential software and empowering the people behind it.
Established in 2010, we are the UK’s leading authority on research software and work at the centre of an international movement to make it more effective, sustainable and properly recognised. We bring together research, community, policy and practice to produce evidence, shape policy, develop skills and careers, build communities and support investment.
Our work connects the people who create and maintain software with universities, funders, government bodies, learned societies, national facilities and industry. These connections help ensure that research software is open, well-maintained and able to support trustworthy, reproducible research.