This blog was originally posted on the Nordic RSE website.

The second Nordic-RSE in-person conference took place on May 20-21 2025 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference was made possible thanks to the support of the Gothenburg Research Institute in Digital Humanities and the Software Sustainability Institute, and it was for anyone passionate about research software engineering (RSE) - whether by writing research tools, supporting scientific software, or just being curious about the field. We built this event to be a space where people can learn, connect, and share knowledge.

And that’s exactly what happened in Gothenburg this May!

A Look at the Numbers

This year, we welcomed 45 participants to the Humanisten building at University of Gothenburg over two full days. We had a packed program, with:

• 1 keynote talk
• 14 talks
• 3 discussion sessions
• 2 tutorials
• 4 posters

What We Talked About

The range of topics was wide and reflected the diversity of interests within the Research (Software) Engineering enthusiasts community in the Nordics. To name just a few:

• Open Science
• Design patterns in code
• The history of free and open source software
• Vim (yes, really!)
• 3D visualization techniques
• Static web interfaces
• Peer review processes for reproducible research software
• RSE group structures, funding and career paths
• Data processing and (3D) visualization with game engines and other tools
• Training experiences in RSE and adjacent fields
• Data handling tools and techniques
• Graphical tools for working with supercomputers
• "Real-world" software engineering that can mess up someone's night in case of malfunction

And then there were all the spontaneous conversations - during lunch breaks, over coffee, and at the conference dinner - covering even more ground. The small size of the conference made it possible for each person attending to meet (almost) all the other participants: this fostered a very constructive and dynamic environment.

Getting There

The lead-up to the conference was its own journey. Early on, we also ran a conference info event in form of an interview with the conference chair and local chair, which we summarizes as a blog post titled "Join Us at Nordic-RSE conference 2025: A Home for Research Software Enthusiasts!". Abstract submission was open until March 16, and we hosted a dedicated “Night of Unfinished Abstracts” on March 12 to help people shape their ideas and get peer support finalizing their abstracts and ideas. Registration ran until early May, all through our website.

Staying Involved

The conference might be over, but we’re always looking for ways to keep the momentum going - especially online. Do you have a suggestion for a seminar speaker? Have you got a topic you’d like to present? Want to help organize the next conference?

Join us in the Nordic-RSE Zulip chat and help shape what’s next. Nordic-RSE is built from the bottom up, by RSE themselves for other RSEs.

Thank You

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who made Nordic-RSE 2025 happen:

• Our code of conduct committee, Heli and Julia
• The organizing team: Matteo, Radovan, Luca, Richard, Jarno, and Samantha
• Our funders: the Software Sustainability Institute and GRIDH
• And of course: every participant - for coming, sharing, discussing, and generally contributing to the great atmosphere that we felt

Want to Read More?

Here are a couple of reflections and highlights from others in the community:

• Blog post by Michael Dales on insights from the conference
• LinkedIn post by InfraVis

See you next year Tromsø, Norway, June 9-10 2026!

• The Nordic-RSE 2025 Organizing Team
   

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2025 conference just wrapped up in the stunning city of Brisbane, Australia, and I’m still processing all the exciting ideas, people, and collaborations it brought together. Held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, this year’s event was nothing short of inspiring, bringing together thousands of neuroimaging researchers from around the world to explore cutting-edge technologies, global challenges, and the future of our field.

Kicking Off with the Neuroimaging Statistics Workshop

My OHBM journey began with a satellite workshop on Neuroimaging Statistics. In a time where AI dominates conversations, this workshop served as an important reminder: robust statistical foundations still matter. These talks bridged classical statistical thinking with modern AI applications, showing how we can integrate both to advance research in uncovering the structural and functional organisation of the brain.

Talairach Lecture: Global Data, Local Impact

The conference officially began with the prestigious Talairach Lecture by Dr. Paul Thompson, who spoke about the ENIGMA consortium, a global neuroimaging collaboration combining data from across continents. Dr. Thompson’s talk highlighted how AI and global data sharing are reshaping our understanding of brain health and disease. It was a powerful message on how far we’ve come and how much more we can achieve.

Themes That Shaped OHBM 2025

1. AI Meets Open Science

One of the strongest themes this year was the intersection of AI and open science. Educational sessions emphasised tools and standards designed to make neuroimaging reproducible and transparent, including:

·    FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) practices in neuroimaging.

·    Growing awareness around the environmental impact of AI models and big data neuroimaging analyses, from carbon emissions to digital waste.

·    Open-source imaging protocols that reduce vendor-specific biases.

2. Making Neuroimaging More Inclusive

Accessibility was front and centre, with powerful discussions around how to make neuroimaging research feasible in lower-resource settings. Talks showcased how low-field MRI, coupled with AI upscaling methods, can democratise access to brain imaging. There was also a critical conversation around AI model explainability, especially when applying these tools in clinical settings across diverse populations.

3. Tackling Mental Health with Data

Several talks focused on data-driven approaches to mental health, including dementia and depression. Researchers are now using techniques like normative modelling and insular cortex biomarkers to identify subgroups within disorders and personalise treatment pathways. This is precision psychiatry in action.

4. Brain Geometry, Consciousness, and Development

We also saw exciting theoretical advances, from geometric brain models (going beyond classic networks) to mapping consciousness through imaging. Another highlight was a session on fetal programming and maternal mental health, exploring how early life brain development is influenced by maternal depression.

5. Neuroimaging at the Clinical Interface

Talks on connectome mapping for surgical interventions offered real-world clinical applications, emphasizing the importance of industry-academia collaboration to turn neuroimaging insights into usable tools for hospitals.

6. Sex and Gender Differences in the Brain

A dedicated track on sex/gender neuroscience sheds light on global research findings, reminding us why considering sex and gender differences is crucial in brain research and clinical practice.

Posters, People, and Possibilities

With over 2,000 posters spanning everything from AI-powered predictions to analysing large-scale datasets like UK Biobank, ABCD, and HCP, there was no shortage of learning opportunities. Personally, it was incredibly rewarding to meet researchers who had already been building on my previous work. These interactions are what make OHBM so special: a space for collaboration, growth, and inspiration.

Final Thoughts

OHBM 2025 wasn’t just about new methods and big datasets; it was about rethinking how we do science, making it more sustainable, inclusive, and collaborative. From open-source tools to climate-conscious computing, the neuroimaging community is evolving in thoughtful, future-focused ways. Here’s to carrying that momentum forward and building a more connected, equitable, and insightful future for neuroimaging.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone listed below for your generous financial support, invaluable guidance, and encouragement throughout my participation at OHBM 2025. Your contributions made it possible for me to attend, engage meaningfully with the global neuroimaging community, and proudly showcase my work.

NIHR BRC Brain Technologies theme, Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN), Supervisors, and Co-authors, Software Sustainability Institute.

We are pleased to announce the The Turing Way Fireside Chat Series on Governance, co-hosted by The Turing Way and the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI). Relaunched in 2025, this special series brings together experts and community members to explore the many dimensions of governance in research and open science.

The series began in June and has already featured engaging and thought-provoking sessions:

• Part 1 (19 June): An introduction to the ongoing governance work in The Turing Way, featuring members of its Steering Committee.
• Part 2 (30 June): A deep dive into the role of community in research and open science, featuring leaders from SSI, HiddenREF, and rLadies.

We’re now thrilled to announce the third event in the series, taking place on 31 July 2025, from 17:00 to 18:30 UTC (18:00–19:30 UK time):

Fireside Chat: “Learning from Each Other's Journeys: Case Studies from Open Initiatives”

This session will spotlight speakers from a range of globally impactful open science and training communities, sharing real-world examples and lessons learned in community-driven governance. Confirmed speakers include:

• Yanina Bellini Saibene – Community Manager, rOpenSci
• Chris Holdgraf – Executive Director, 2i2c
• Aleksandra Nenadic – SSI Research Software Training Lead, University of Manchester
• Arielle Bennett – Senior Researcher, The Alan Turing Institute
• Yo Yehudi – Executive Director, Open Life Science (OLS)

Communities represented include rOpenSci, 2i2c, The Carpentries, R-Ladies, The Turing Way, Jupyter, and OLS — all bringing rich insights into collaborative models of leadership and learning.

Event details:
Date: 31 July 2025
Time: 17:00–18:30 UTC (18:00–19:30 UK time)
More information and registration: https://the-turing-way-fireside-chats.start.page/

This session is part of a broader monthly series running from June to November, with upcoming topics including:

• 28 August: Exploring Distributed, Collaborative and Decentralised Governance Models, featuring insights from The Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease Network (CSID Network), Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) and The Engine Room.
• 25 September: Governance frameworks, examples and resources from open source networks, featuring leaders from CURIOSS, CHAOSS and Open Source Research.
• 30 October: Good Governance Practices for the Long-Term Health of Open Initiatives, featuring researchers and leaders from Organisational Mycology and MetaDocencia.

All sessions are free and open to everyone. Whether you're a long-time contributor or just discovering these communities, we warmly welcome your participation.

Catch up on past events via our YouTube channel and learn more about this series and our speakers on The Turing Way website.
 

Event info

On the 1st and 2nd of April 2025, I attended the Fellowship of the Data event in Jena, Germany’s second national Research Data Management (RDM) community meeting. This is a community-driven event to bring together RDM professionals at various career stages. I went to present a poster on my research, “RDM, FAIR, and data sharing practices and perceptions of people who work with sensitive health data”.

Despite being a German meeting with most attendees from German research institutions, it was a surprisingly international community, with people from all over Europe and beyond! The event was full of community, interesting discussions, lots of Lord of the Rings memes, and as with many international meetings, I made new connections with UK colleagues I had not managed to meet in the UK. 

Day 1

Day 1 kicked off with a lovely welcome from the organisers, and Benjamin Slowig gave an overview of the whole German RDM landscape. The first keynote was made up of 2 interesting talks; Britta Petersen (Kiel University), in a Matrix themed presentation, covered how learning objectives could be the foundation of future training for data stewards, and Mijke Jetten (Health-RI) gave examples of how the Netherlands are bringing together community, training and practice in FAIR data stewardship, including through networks like ELIXIR, and the Dutch Data Steward Interest Group.

After an all-important lunch break, the day continued with a session around diversity of RDM tasks and roles. Kevin Lindt (TU Ilmenau) and Stefan Kirsch (EAU Jena) took us on an entertaining Lord of the Rings-themed journey of their Rent a Data Steward initiative in Thuringia. Michael Feichtinger (University of Vienna) then walked us through building a data stewardship network and team in Vienna.

I and the other poster presenters for Day 1 then gave flash talks - a mini advert to pique people’s interest in our poster - before the full poster session with snacks. I had some fascinating conversations and made new connections with colleagues from NFDI4Health, Germany’s national research data infrastructure for personal health data. 

The day ended with parallel sessions (Arts & Humanities, Life Sciences, and Data Competence Centres) where I got to know data stewards working in similar disciplines and had open, honest discussions on common issues we all faced. Again, building a supportive community was a key part of the event.

Day 2

In the morning of Day 2, I joined the community workshop session for data stewards to share essential tasks and how to overcome challenges. There were several ‘stations’ with different topics in the room which we rotated around every 15 minutes or so.

The third keynote of the event came from Antje Manske (GESIS/Base4NFDI) who explored how data stewards and other RDM professionals could use change management techniques to influence culture change at their institutions - inspiring to say the least!

Following another networking lunch, Samantha Pearman-Kanza (University of Southampton) gave the fourth keynote of the meeting, an in-depth talk on the ups and downs of using Electronic Research Notebooks. There was also a sneak peek into the new Careers and Skills for Data-Driven Research (CaSDaR) network she is leading, with some familiar faces appearing as co-leads, Simon Coles, James Baker, and the Software Sustainability Institute’s very own Director of Strategy, Simon Hettrick.

The final session of Day 2 was another poster flash talk and presentation session; most posters and presentations from the event are available on the Fellowship of the Data Zenodo page. Finally, the event closed with a summary from the wonderful organisers before we parted ways until next time.

Conclusions

A key theme and stand-out of the event was community and peer learning, which was really important and lovely to see. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and refreshingly open and honest. A lot of RDM professionals work in isolation or very small teams so meetings like this are vital to professionalising our roles and feeling connected and heard in an academic world that often sees RDM as an afterthought.

It was interesting how similar the RDM challenges in Germany are to the UK. I came away full of inspiration for both my SSI Fellowship and research, and feeling inspired to keep building connections and community internationally. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend a future iteration of this fantastic event!

Thank you to the Software Sustainability Institute for funding my travel and attendance at this meeting.

BioFAIR has launched its fellowship programme. BioFAIR Fellows will become ambassadors for excellence in research workflow and data management across the UK life science research community, and will contribute to the creation of the BioFAIR People Commons. This is an opportunity to be an early part of the newly established and ambitious BioFAIR programme, which aims to deliver a BioCommons infrastructure for the UK, including end-to-end FAIR research data management and analysis capabilities along with the necessary support and training for UK researchers working in the life sciences. A BioFAIR Fellowship will fund 20% of your time for one year to support ambassadorial activities within your institution, across your broader research domain and the wider scientific community. 

The NES Col-Lab Retreat will take place in Schoorl, Netherlands, from Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 August. The event will bring together researchers, data stewards, software engineers and support staff with an affinity for the Natural and Engineering Sciences.

After the success of Edinburgh Winter School 2024, we decided to do it again in 2025. This time, a few things were a bit easier. For example, we started the planning and advertising process in September 2024, giving ourselves a realistic timeline until the event date on 8th January 2025. We also had a tested team, with colleagues from across university departments, all willing to help and experienced in their respective tasks. But, a few things were more challenging: we decided to hold the event in a different venue (Usher Building, which is home to quite a few members of the organising team, but is located further out of town), we opened many more slots for short and longer attendee talks (leading to more admin around talk submission, selection and delivery), and I personally had another large event scheduled for the day after the Winter School.

Reception team at the start of the event

The team have gathered a lot of statistics and practical documents summarising how we organised the event, and what advice we would give to anyone wanting to organise something similar in the future. For example, we know that for in-person participation, 99 people said they were interested, 89 confirmed that they would attend, and 71 eventually attended the event. For online participation, 77 people said they were interested and 65 eventually attended (this includes a few people who were signed up to attend in person and switched to online). These numbers are useful to have because they help with planning things like the number of tables and seats to set, or the amount of catering that should be ordered. Being a bit of an obsessive planner, I do always worry that we will run out of chairs or sandwiches, or that we’ll be left with lots of food going to waste. But, I have been learning to let go and make estimates based on previous runs of the event (e.g. we ordered lunch for 80 people, but the drinks reception was estimated as 60, as we knew from last year that quite a few people needed to head home early). If you are interested in getting more of our estimates and advice, please feel free to reach out at pairprogramming@ed.ac.uk.

A humbling experience for me as one of the organisers has been sending the invitations to keynote speakers. As I become more senior and more busy, I definitely expect “No” to be everyone’s default answer. Imagine my surprise and absolute delight when the three keynote speakers I approached, Greg Wilson, Yanina Bellini Saybene, and Felienne Hermans, accepted our invite. Felienne even offered to attend the conference in person (granted, it would have been a much more difficult task for Greg and Yanina, who are based in Canada and Argentina). Both keynotes were excellent and the participant feedback suggests that they were a highlight for the participants – many feedback comments mentioned Felienne’s engaging delivery style and the important message in her talk (there is no merit in making things difficult; we should be making programming easier for our students!). 

Another fantastic part of the Winter School has been the groundwork that we have done for putting together an edited book about teaching programming across disciplines. We encouraged conference participants to propose topics for chapters that they would like to contribute to the book. Putting these on a big whiteboard (and in the chat for online participants) meant that anyone could also add their name to a chapter already proposed. We now have 48 book chapter suggestions and will be working with all authors to make them reality. Over the next 2 years, we will facilitate writing retreats, provide editing support and spread the word about the book, so that the programming education community can come together in creating this resource. For more information about the book (and to submit your chapter ideas), please check out the dedicated page.

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan (Wat Arun temple), Bangkok, Thailand.

During my visit to the FOSSASIA Summit 2025 from 13-15 March 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, I had a chance to have a number of interesting conversations and learnings. I am sharing these through this blog.

Swa-dee-kah Bangkok!

What is FOSS?

FOSS, an acronym for Free and Open Source Software, embodies a software development philosophy centred on freedom and openness. The term 'Free' denotes users' liberty to run, alter, and share the software, while 'Open Source' signifies that the software's source code is available for users to inspect, modify, and contribute to its progress. FOSS promotes collaboration, transparency, and user empowerment. This frequently leads to the creation of more secure and sustainable software projects. Notable examples of FOSS include Linux, Blender, Chromium, Kubernetes, and Mozilla Firefox, among many more.

What is FOSSASIA?

FOSSASIA  is an organisation developing Open Source software applications and Open Hardware together with a global community from its base in Asia. Their goal is to provide access to open technologies, science applications and knowledge that improve people's lives. They enable people to adapt and change technology according to their own ideas and needs, and validate science and knowledge through an Open Access approach. It was established in 2009 by Hong Phuc Dang and Mario Behling. They organise and participate in conferences, meetups and code camps. The annual FOSSASIA Summit is one of the top tech events in Asia. Other summits take place in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India. FOSSASIA also runs a number of coding programs, such as Codeheat.

The 15th edition of FOSSASIA Summit was organised at True Digital Park, Bangkok, Thailand from 13th to 15th March 2025.  It brought together individuals sharing talks on topics around Free and Open Source Software. The Summit had multiple parallel track sessions like talks, lightning talks, workshops, and more! There were booths by various organisations creating and/or using Free and Open Source Software.  This was my first experience of attending FOSSASIA in-person in Thailand.

Day 1

The day started with a lot of fervour. Following the welcome session by Hong Phuc Dang, there were multiple parallel tracks of talks. One of the booths demonstrated Robot Jupiter (image below) -  an interactive virtual education assistant! 

I had a chance to speak to Nancy Reyes, a representative from the  A11y Accessibility Labs. She was showcasing the hardware items that they use for digital accessibility awareness training during their Usability and Accessibility Clinic sessions.

Me against the backdrop of the live LED screens at the conference venue True Digital Park. At the conference venue entrance door. Robot Jupiter, virtual education assistant. A picture with Nancy Reyes. Hardware items for digital accessibility awareness training.

Day 2

The second day of the summit, 14th March, was themed as PGDay 2025, a 1-day event focused on the PostgreSQL database, which was held in conjunction with the FOSSASIA Summit. I learnt about a new tool - pgroll. It is an open-source command-line tool designed for PostgreSQL, ensuring that schema updates are applied safely, without locking the database, and enabling multiple schema versions to coexist. This ensures uninterrupted operation for client applications during migration, even when introducing breaking changes. The tool’s capability to automatically backfill columns and support instant rollbacks further enhances its reliability.

Later that day, I came across the booth of Grafana Labs. As I spoke to Richard Hartmann, he shared the useful features of Grafana Labs tools for creating reports, metrics, and graphs of the code being written.

Day 3

I held a ‘Meet & Greet Spot’ to speak to people about the field of Research Software Engineering, and discussed how it is a career path where one can combine their interest in implementing their research skills along with programming skills. I also shared about the past and the upcoming activities of the Research Software Engineering (RSE) Asia Association. Most people were curious to learn more about it, and also expressed a desire to join the future events held for the community.

Cultural Warmth

From the moment I arrived at the Suvarnabhumi airport, I found everyone to be warm and welcoming. People at help desks, metro ticket counters, and even local markets were kind and helped me get around the city easily. I also learned something new about Thailand — it's a pedestrian-first country, where vehicles stop to let people cross the road. Another thing I noticed was a good gender balance in the different workplaces that I came across.

With fresh fruits like mangoes, jackfruits, cashews, coconuts, bananas, and guavas, I truly experienced the tropical feel of the country. I enjoyed trying different types of bread, like red bean and almond bread. I also got to taste authentic Pad Thai noodles and Veg Thai Curry at a restaurant in True Digital Park. A fellow participant at the conference even taught me how to use chopsticks practically. I found Bangkok’s infrastructure very supportive for growth, with great workspaces and plenty of learning resources to help you make your own impact. Everyone I met — from the conference team to the hotel staff — was friendly and helpful, making the city feel not just a business hub, but a place that warmly welcomes you again and again.

Here’s a glimpse of Bangkok through my eyes!

Depiction of Samudra Manthan (The Churning of the Ocean Milk), Suvarnabhumi Airport. Pad Thai noodles and vegetarian Thai curry. Wat Pho, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The Great Bodhi Tree and night view of the Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan (Wat Arun temple).

My takeaway

FOSSASIA Summit 2025 was especially close to my heart because it rekindled in me the open source community’s spirit, zeal, and dedication towards contributing back to the software that we, knowingly or unknowingly, use on a day-to-day basis. As I left Thailand to return home, I carried so many so many learnings with me - especially the power that the voice of a community has!

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for two SSI Fellows' events: Niko Sirmpilatze's "Animals in Motion" and Alessandro Felder's "Big Imaging Data". These events will take place during the Neuroinformatics Open Software Week running between Monday 11 and Friday 15 August in London.

Let me start by saying that this trip almost didn’t happen. A visa application I started in early November was still unresolved a day before FOSDEM. Without my passport, I had to cancel my flight. But with just a few hours to go, something changed.

On January 30th, I received a notification that my passport had reached Abuja, and DHL would take at least 24 hours to get it to Port Harcourt. Long story short? I wrote a letter authorising a friend in Abuja to pick up the passport and check the visa approval status. The outcome was positive! The next morning (January 31st), I was on the first flight to Abuja. After a first flight, a long layover and a second flight, I finally reached Brussels on Saturday morning — just in time to rush straight to FOSDEM.

Amidst all this chaos, I missed the first conference I had planned to attend before FOSDEM — CHAOSScon25.

First-Time FOSDEM Experience

This was my first time attending FOSDEM in person. Last year, I had only given a talk online — my first international talk. Being there in person this year was an awesome experience, and I can’t thank OLS enough for making it happen.

Organiser

Meeting long-time organisers of the Open Research Devroom was a learning experience. I was exposed to the challenges of scheduling online talks across different time zones and learned how to use Pretalx for reviewing abstracts and proposals.

One of my small but exciting contributions was adding the schedule to the website and enhancing it with a little CSS for better aesthetics and UX.

I also got to experience the subtle power of keeping speakers on schedule — holding up signs to let them know they had “x minutes left.” So much power!

Speaker

I gave a lightning talk on Pre-seeds, sharing early insights from our ongoing survey on underrepresented groups in research. We have a small team working on this, with a roadmap in place and a survey aimed at understanding what people want in a course like Pre-seeds. This was a great opportunity to showcase our progress and gather feedback.

Attendee

Day 1: Open Research Devroom

Some of the standout talks were:

1. “Applying the ‘Do No Harm’ Principle to Open Source Practices and Technology” —

This talk drew inspiration from the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors swear to do no harm. It made me reflect on how, while we can’t prevent all harm in open source, we should strive to minimise intentional and avoidable harm. Dr. Malvika Sharan discussed how openness — our invitation for people to use, remix, and build on our work — can sometimes perpetuate harm. This thought-provoking session initiated deeper discussions about the ethical aspects of open science and responsible research practices.

2. JOSSCast: Experimenting with Storytelling in Open Research —

Abigail Cabunoc Mayes and Arfon Smith spoke about their experiment with JOSSCast, a podcast designed to connect researchers, developers, and contributors through storytelling. They shared insights into what worked, what didn’t, and how podcasts can strengthen open research by engaging both technical and non-technical audiences. This session reinforced the power of storytelling in science communication and community-building.

Day 2: Funders Devroom

The highlights of my day were:

1. “Storytelling, Networking, and Strategy: Three Keys to Successful Fundraising” by Amy Parker.

This was easily my favourite session of the day. She broke down fundraising success into three key components: “the right ask (Storytelling) to the right person (Networking) at the right time (Strategy).” It was a brilliant talk on how to align these elements to secure funding.

2. Funders Devroom organisers AMA Session

I was looking forward to Emmy Tsang’s talk on “Funding the FOSS Ecosystem”, but unfortunately, it was canceled due to her Eurostar delay. That was heartbreaking. However, the Devroom organisers salvaged the situation with an impromptu Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.

3. “Small Seeds — Why Funding New Ideas Matters”

This talk by Marie Kreil and Marie-Lena Wiese (of Prototype Fund) struck a personal chord. They emphasised the importance of supporting young and novel ideas, which resonated with me as I work on Pre-seeds.

4. “When is it Right to Say No to Funding?” by Karen Sandler.

It was a surprising but essential session. In a room with people trying to secure funding, this talk took a different approach — outlining cases where declining funding is the better choice, such as misaligned values, unreasonable workloads, or funders attempting to rewrite the purpose of a project.

The FOSDEM Maze

The sheer size of FOSDEM was overwhelming — multiple buildings, endless rooms, and long queues outside popular Devrooms. Trying to navigate was a bit daunting for a first timer, and I imagine this might be the case even for people who are already familiar with how FOSDEM works.

However, one of the best things about FOSDEM is that all talks are recorded. So, when the chaos becomes too much, you can take a break, grab some waffles, and catch up later.

Also, I can’t not mention ‘sticker heaven’ — There was an entire section dedicated to stickers, and I wanted one (or six) of everything. I need more laptops to put these on!

The Friendships

One of the best parts of FOSDEM was reconnecting with friends and meeting new people:

• My friend and SSI brother, David Luiz, gave me the most amazing hug — thank you!
• Sara Petti and I snuck into the Funders Devroom, sat through talks, and chatted about life.
• Malvika Sharan treated me to lunch on both days, unaware of how much that “small” gesture meant to me. Thank you for the book!

• Meeting the Open Research Devroom team in person was great too, as they were all welcoming and kind.
• I finally got to chat with Ruth Ikegah, someone I’ve admired from afar for her efforts to represent Africa in tech.
• The GitHub Maintainers Afterparty was another highlight — I hung out with Duncan Hall and met Ruth Cheesley, whose calm demeanour was exactly what I needed after two intense days of FOSDEM-ing.

Finally…

I regret not being able to attend CHAOSSCon25, but will try extra hard to be there come 2026 — even though that outcome is not mine to decide.

I also can’t attend the German RSE Conference (25–27th) to present my poster because my visa is only valid until the 21st.

Despite the challenges of getting to FOSDEM’25, it was worth every moment. From speaking and organising to attending brilliant sessions and making meaningful connections, this experience will stay with me for a long time.

Until next time, Brussels!