This is the last of 6 Fellows’ stories sharing how the Fellowship programme has supported both their career and advocacy for good software practices. The stories were developed as part of the Fellows Impact Evaluation. The full report can be found here. Pseudonyms have been used for anonymity.

Adrian: Advocating for software in research policy roles.

“Yes, absolutely, I do still feel like an SSI fellow… whenever I talk about research data as an output, I always include code and workflows and protocols and all the sort of stuff that is the SSI’s kind of bread and butter.”

Adrian’s motivation for applying for a Fellowship was wanting to bring software into the conversations about research outputs within his role. He wasn’t a software expert and therefore didn’t fit his perceived idea of an SSI fellow. However, he found the SSI community to be inclusive and approachable in terms of professional role. His understanding of software best practice and policy increased and the Fellowship provided him with an excellent platform for knowledge sharing and finding collaborators. He also enjoyed contributing his own expertise to the Fellows’ community, especially as he could provide a wider research perspective.

Adrian found that being a fellow of an established programme with alumni who are well respected in the research community supported his professional reputation. His profile was also raised by writing blogs for the SSI website that were then shared and received positive responses. He wrote these blogs with other fellows, and the process allowed him to develop an evidence base from which to advocate for change.

The role Adrian had at the start of his Fellowship was compatible with his Fellowship plans and he attended a number of events that were relevant and beneficial. However, he then moved to a role where this wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, he still considered himself to be an SSI fellow and continued to advocate for good software practices. He now has a new role which he believes will allow him to re-engage with the SSI, and is encouraged to do so by the ‘Fellow for life’ ethos. He hopes to attend further Collaborations Workshops, be more frequent on the SSI fellows’ communication channels and is aware that he could apply for more financial support for SSI aligned activities if he wished too.

Other blogs in this series

Vicky: Becoming a leader in research reproducibility

Theresa: Making the transition into research policy

Sophie: Becoming a domain-specific community leader

Cara: Becoming a university-wide expert in software sustainability

Frank: Becoming an expert in improving software good practices

Adrian: Advocating for software in research policy roles