As software develops and matures, it often reaches points throughout its life that prevent improvement, growth and adoption. This is often true of software development in research, where priorities are understandably centred around researchers' goals and not long term use or reuse.
The Institute has a history of successful collaborations with other projects and centres, working with over 50 projects across a range of research domains and all UK Research Councils.
To see how we've helped others, and whom we are currently working with, you can check out our portfolio of past and current projects. You can also read a collection of case studies on our past projects, and testimonials from people we've worked with.
Contact
The Research Software Group is led by Steve Crouch. Please get in contact if you'd like to discuss how we can work with you
Helping you improve your software - the Open Call
The Open Call is a free service that allows researchers to propose joint software consultancy projects with the Institute.
Our research software engineers (RSEs) will work closely with your research team to assess these aspects, provide recommendations for improvement, and assist with implementing recommendations.
An Open Call project typically runs between 1-6 months, and we work together with successful applicants to develop a tailored work plan suitable for the project.
After a more short-term software project?
For smaller requests that do not warrant an Open Call project, you can get in touch via email. Perhaps you simply need a brief assessment of your software to either confirm you're heading in the right direction, or to determine the next steps in ensuring the sustainability of your software.
Looking to assess your own software?
If you wish to perform an evaluation of your software yourself, you can make use of our online Sustainability Evaluation Service, a questionnaire which takes about 15 minutes to complete.
This service gives you the opportunity to review the main issues that affect the sustainability of your software.
At the end of the evaluation, a report will be generated with sustainability advice that is tailored to your project, and may prove helpful as a starting point for discussion if you would like to request further help from the Institute.
We also provide information on how we conduct software evaluations that may be useful when conducting your assessments.
Do you need to choose an open-source licence?
A common question we are asked at the Institute is which open-source licence to adopt for a given piece of software. We have a guide on this (and many others) that may help you.