Skip to main content Site map
HomeEvents and workshops

Collaborations Workshop 2025 (CW25)

Bookmark this page Bookmarked

Collaborations Workshop 2025 (CW25)

Organiser (s)
Kyro Hartzenberg

Kyro Hartzenberg

Events Manager

Sections in this article
Events details
Location:  Stirling Court Hotel, University of Stirling
Dates: 

13 | 15 May 2025

Collaborations Workshop 2025 (CW25)

The Collaborations Workshop 2025 (CW25) will bring together researchers, developers, innovators, managers, funders, publishers, policy makers, leaders and educators to explore best practices and the future of research software. 

CW25 logo, a road heading forward

CW25 will centre around future proofing research software and how we evolve together as a diverse community. Over three days, delegates will be invited to take part in discussion sessions, collaborative ideas sessions, and hack day sessions, to explore together and create together.

Delegates can also expect inspirational keynote sessions and lightning talks, focusing on the changes in landscape, what research software will look like in the future, and the challenges for the research software community.

And that's not all! As CW25 will be hosted in bonnie Scotland, we’re bringing an authentic Scottish flair to the experience. From the stunning Stirling surroundings to a traditional bagpiper and ceilidh dance, the event will have a delightful Scottish theme woven throughout. Plus, enjoy lunch and dinner, included in your ticket.

Location

Collaborations Workshop 2025 (CW25) will take place as a hybrid event from Tuesday 13 May to Thursday 15 May 2025 at Stirling Court Hotel, University of Stirling.

This year's event will be delivered in a hybrid format on Zoom and in person at Stirling Court Hotel, based on the grounds of the University of Stirling. Stirling is a beautiful, historic city with easy access to beautiful, wild landscapes and outdoor activities. Stirling is also ideally placed as a gateway to the Scottish Highlands and is only a short train trip from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

View the Venue Guide

Zoom Events

Please follow the joining instruction outlined in the CW25 Zoom Guide. 

CW25 Zoom Guide

Why you should attend

The Software Sustainability Institute invites all members of the research software community to explore and discuss the themes described above and other related issues at CW25. CW25 is also an ideal opportunity to form collaborations (on average, CW participants start two new collaborations by attending) and to discuss topics proposed by attendees. Collaborations Workshop is a great place to network and participants will meet many of the existing Software Sustainability Institute Fellows – key ambassadors in varied research domains.

Read a report of CW23 here

Registration (registration is now closed)

Registration went live on Monday 24 February on Eventbrite

The following tickets are available:

  • Collaborations Workshop 2025: In-person [Complete] - £330
  • Collaborations Workshop 2025: Remote [Complete] - £90

Both tickets include access and participation to all sessions, including keynotes, panel discussions, lightning talks, collaborative ideas sessions, and hack day sessions. Lunch, dinner and social activities are included in the in-person ticket price. Remote delegates will be invited to virtual/hybrid social activities and networking sessions. 

View on Eventbrite

Event Programme

The full event programme is now available. This includes all timings, speaker bios, workshops and lightning talks.

Access the booklet

Day 1: Tuesday 13 May 2025, 11:20 - 12:00 BST

Session 1.1 - Supporting Mental Health in our Community
  • Mike Simpson, Newcastle University

I will discuss why mental health is an important challenge for our community and offer a brief summary of my plans for the SSI Fellowship. I will also be calling on the attendees to consider ideas for the hack day (like our prize winning project from last year) that focus on helping RSEs - and others in similar roles - to look after their mental health.

Session 1.2 - DisCouRSE: Developing a Community of Leaders
  • Jonathan Cooper, UCL Advanced Research Computing Centre

I will introduce our newly funded UKRI Network+ grant, aiming to connect and train aspiring leaders across RSE and related digital skills specialisms. The talk will cover what we're aiming to accomplish in the next 3.5 years, and how we would like the whole community to get involved!

Session 1.3 - SIG-RPC: The Reasonable Performance Computing Special Interest Group
  • Robert Chisholm, University of Sheffield

SIG-RPC is a newly formed community of practice focused on researching, developing, and advocating for performance best practices in software. Our goal is to make performance improvements more accessible, providing easy wins for those working closely with software. We're eager to connect with people from across the spectrum of technical expertise spectrum, to both strengthen our collective knowledge, and to identify how we can reach and engage with those that can benefit most.

Session 1.4 - From open code to open contributions: exploring open source practices in academia
  • Arielle Bennett, The Alan Turing Institute

I will be presenting an overview of my exploration of open source practices in academia. The audience will be invited to participate and share their views, either via survey or via the discussion and speed blogging session at CW25.

Session 1.5 - Green RSE - How it started, how it's going and what we are doing
  • Kirsty Pringle, SSI / University of Edinburgh

The SocRSE Green RSE special interest group works to identify and promote best practices for environmentally responsible research software.  While we are a group of RSEs, the work extends beyond RSE to all digital research technical professions.  In this talk I'll introduce the group and share some highlights from our first year.

Session 1.6 - Research 101: Promoting Diversity Through Open Science Literacy.
  • Deborah Udoh, OLS

Pre-Seeds (Research 101) is an open-source initiative designed to lower barriers to research literacy and amplify underrepresented voices in open science. Inspired by OLS’s capacity-building programs, Pre-Seeds offers a flexible, modular curriculum covering essential research concepts, such as research design, ethical considerations, and data management. This talk will pitch Pre-Seeds as an idea for the CW25 Hack Day, inviting collaborators to co-develop this initiative and contribute to shaping an inclusive research ecosystem.

Session 1.7 - Green Algorithms Initiative – Join Our Multi-Centre Study on (Environmentally) Sustainable Computing Practices!
  • Christina Bremer, University of Cambridge

The Green Algorithms Initiative aims to promote more environmentally sustainable computational science and empower researchers, RSEs and organisations to understand the environmental impacts of their work. Tools such as the Green Algorithms online calculator have proved useful to the community, but some big questions remain: To what extend does carbon tracking incentivise green computing practices? Or how can we make sure it does? To answer these questions, and leveraging a new open source dashboard for HPC that we have built, we are planning a large-scale multi-centre study. In this lightning talk, I will give a brief overview of the upcoming study, for which we very much welcome further participants.

Session 1.8 - Bridging the Gap Between Technical and Non-Technical Researchers: The Role of UI & UX in Web Based Research Software
  • Zeynep AKI, Durham University

Prototyping UI/UX before coding with tools like Adobe XD or Figma helps bridge the gap between technical and non-technical researchers by allowing teams to visualize workflows, test usability, and refine interactions early. By integrating Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) principles, prototypes ensure that research tools are designed for how people actually work, reducing complexity and increasing adoption. This approach fosters collaboration, minimizes costly redesigns, and results in more intuitive, efficient, and accessible research software from the start.

Session 1.9 - “Sustainable" data acquisition and processing for high-energy physics: the case of real-time analysis in SMARTHEP
  • Caterina Doglioni, SMARTHEP

In this short contribution we will present the reasons why sustainable software, in terms of both FAIR4RS and power consumption sense, is essential to process vast amounts of data in real time at Large Hadron Collider experiments at CERN. We’ll present examples drawn from the SMARTHEP network, a European Training Network coordinated by the University of Manchester that enables real-time analysis through hybrid computing architectures and machine learning. As the network draws to a close this year, we’re happy to collect ideas and feedback from this workshop on how to collaborate with other researchers, RSEs and RTPs towards further improvements.

Day 2: Wednesday 14 May 2025, 14:00 - 14:30 BST

Session 2.1 - Crowd-sourced exemplars for developing research software skills
  • Jay DesLauriers, Imperial College London

Taking programming skills taught in lectures or short courses and applying them to larger research projects can be a challenging jump. ReCoDE proposes a collection of well-documented research computing projects designed to support researchers making the transition from taught material to practical implementation. Inspired by the cognitive apprenticeship model, exemplars are sourced from the PhD community at Imperial College London and are developed in collaboration with a member of teaching staff and a research software engineer. This talk will describe our approach to selecting, developing, publishing and evaluating these exemplars, as well as our plans for the future.

Session 2.2 - Connecting Life Sciences to Machine Learning
  • Alex Baldwin, National Oceanography Centre

Machine learning has come a long way in terms of accessibility. We have amazing libraries with hardware accelerators we could only dream of only a generation ago, but when we look to life sciences, this blazing trail has left the charred remains of incompatible models and broken software. We have a lot of work to do as a community, building tools that not only work well today, but can be built upon tomorrow.

Session 2.3 - Help Us Out Testing CarpentriesOffline
  • Jannetta Steyn, Newcastle University

We would use the talk to encourage participants to help test the CarpentriesOffline server by asking them to connect to a CarpentriesOffline WiFi network. They should be able to connect to the access point, then navigate to a web page where they will find a form to provide some feedback as well as most of the Carpentries learning materials required for delivering workshops.

Session 2.4 - Why are we creating an Open Source Programme Office at UCL?
  • David Pérez-Suárez, University College London / ARC

An Open Source Programme Office (OSPO) is a body within an organisation to look after their open source strategy and operations. Much of the research, infrastructure and every day lives depends on Open Source, but universities don't know how much. An OSPO can provide insights on that and become a body that protects and nurture Open Source communities from within universities.

Session 2.5 - Society of RSE EDIA Working Group
  • Oscar Seip, University of Manchester

This talk introduces the goals and activities of the Society of RSE's EDIA Working Group and encourages people who are passionate about fostering an inclusive research environment to join the bi-weekly meetings and contribute to the initiatives.

Session 2.6 - Building a Bioinformatics Community in a low resource region (Nigeria): How Open Science, Effective Mentoring and Community support documentation helped
  • Seun Olufemi, Open Life Science (OLS)

I will highlight the challenges faced by bioinformaticians in low-resource regions like Nigeria and demonstrate how open science, effective mentoring, and community-driven documentation have been instrumental in overcoming these barriers by fostering a strong community of practice. Additionally, I will provide an overview of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria's contributions to this important effort.

Session 2.7 - Birdaro: A new collaborative project supporting open-source leaders as they consider a sustainable future for their projects
  • Katie Pratt, The Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement (CSCCE)

Birdaro offers training, peer networking, and resources to support scientific open-source software projects as they grow, scale, and chart a path to sustainability. Leaders in open-source can apply to join the Birdaro training program (funded by CZI and free for accepted applicants) and develop the skills they need to succeed, while also building a professional support network of individuals running similar projects. 

Day 1: Tuesday 13 May 2025, 15:45 - 16:45 BST

Session 1.1 - Research Software Sharing, Publication, & Distribution Checklists
  • Richard James Acton, Babraham Institute / Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI)

Abstract

These research software sharing, publication, and distribution checklists were inspired by similar checklists produced by the imaging community and are intended to address a niche not addressed by existing similar resources such as guidance for creating research software management plans. They provide a tiered approach to completing the checklists with each item able to be completed at a different level: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum where bronze is highly attainable and platinum is going well above and beyond. With this approach I'm aiming to somewhat gamify the process as well as to provide aspiration goals and not just to set a minimum floor for compliance. The checklists are tailored based on a simple taxonomy of research software output types: 'records of specific analyses', 'web based services', 'software packages', and 'pipelines or workflows'. Each of these types of software output have overlapping but slightly different considerations for how best they can be shared, published, and distributed so each has its own checklist. Each checklist is comprised of items which address these 11 common themes: Source control, Licensing, Documentation, Making Citable, Testing, Automation, Peer review / Code Review, Distribution, Environment Management / Portability, Energy Efficiency, and Governance, Conduct, and Continuity. The checklists are provided as simple markdown files making the checklists easy to include in a project repository like standard licenses and codes of conduct. Each theme includes its four tiered checkbox items and an expandable section which expands on how to complete these checkboxes with advice and links to additional resources. This keeps the checklists appearing succinct and approachable to prospective users whilst still providing depth. To extend the gamification there are repo badges to display the type of checklist, an overall score, and the medal for the project based on a points system.

I am now seeking feedback on, critique of, and input to, the initial early draft of these checklists from other researchers and research software engineers who  might use them, with the goal of releasing an initial version and seeking collaborators with whom to continue to maintain the checklists and potentially to publish a piece promoting them.

Project Repository: https://gitlab.com/HDBI/data-management/checklists

Audience

If you are publishing a research paper that has any analysis code associated with it, are developing a software tool or analysis pipeline which will be used by researchers, or deploying a web service which will be used by researchers I'd like your input.

An account on **gitlab.com** and basic git skills would be helpful for participants wanting to directly propose edits, but not necessary. There will be a collaborative doc/pad for anyone not familiar with git to share their comments.

Session 1.2 - How do you ensure your science is seen, used and sustained?
  • Bethan Iley, OLS / Queen’s University Belfast

  • Debs Udoh, OLS

  • Yo Yehudi, OLS

  • Joyce Kao, Digital Research Academy

  • Heidi Seibold, Digital Research Academy

Abstract

Open software and research projects often operate under the FAIR principles—findability, accessibility, interoperability and reproducibility—but human findability can be neglected. Without effective communication and strategic outreach, even the most impactful research software can go unnoticed, limiting adoption, collaboration, and long-term sustainability. This can be prevented by developing the marketing and communications skills of "multipliers" who effectively promote their projects, activities and services.

In this interactive workshop, you will be introduced to evidence-based digital marketing and communications techniques and how they can apply to research software projects. Examples of promotional activities within and beyond traditional outreach activities will be highlighted, with a focus on what works for different target audiences. You will be supported to apply this knowledge to your own project using a short worksheet.

The workshop will then shift to a facilitated discussion model with the intention of developing open resources to support marketing and communications in open software and research projects. This will seek to identify (1) examples of best promotional practices that you are aware of; (2) your barriers to engaging in marketing and communication activities, including (but not limited to) diversity, equity and inclusion considerations; and (3) potential ways for communities to overcome these barriers. Your inputs will be used to develop tailored resources for research infrastructure communities.

Audience

This session will not require prerequisite knowledge or skills. These skills are becoming increasingly relevant for professional development, even if you do not (yet) have formal experience in open software or research projects.

Sessions 1.3 - Navigating trade-offs between maintainability and contextualisation
  • Nicky Nicolson, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

  • Irene Ramos,  UNAM & OLS

Abstract

The software sustainability movement has matured and successfully embedded in many domains, but is not yet widely recognised or established in others. If we look at biodiversity informatics as an example, this is an area of concern, as modern biodiversity research is dependent on the development of software tools for data management, mobilisation and analysis, and the customisation of hardware for digitisation and field monitoring. These tasks must be balanced alongside existing responsibilities around the long-term curation of physical specimen objects. Collaborative development of solutions is necessary to ensure reproducibility and avoid technical debt and single points of failure. The application of open science principles is particularly relevant in biodiversity research, especially for specimen-based studies, where they can help address historical biases in scientific collections—often collected from biodiversity-rich regions in the Global South but housed in institutions in the Global North.

Programs like the Carpentries and the Turing Way have been successful in developing skills in research personnel, but there are still research communities where these are not yet embedded. We would like to examine how we can present such relevant initiatives to communities where they are less well-known, and how we should balance the trade-off between contextualising training resources—making them accessible across geographies, languages, and research domains—and maintaining resources that are scalable and sustainable. Contextualisation ensures relevance but demands significant effort and maintenance. Maintaining standardised training materials is easier but may lack local relevance.

The session will use the Carpentries as a case study to explore these trade-offs, particularly examining any potential benefits in creating a contextualised domain carpentry - e.g. a “specimen carpentry” for biodiversity informatics, and the costs, in terms of both creation and ongoing maintenance. The goal of the session is to make connections so that we can learn from other’s experience, and to develop practical guidelines for deciding when and how to contextualise training resources whilst balancing the need for sustainability.

Audience

This session will be of interest to participants who are curious about tailoring training resources or documentation to specific research domains, languages or local contexts. We particularly encourage participation from maintainers and contributors of training initiatives, like The Carpentries or The Turing Way, as well as participants with previous experience in collaborative translation or localisation, and learners who have benefited from domain-specific resources. No prerequisites are needed.

Session 1.4 - Computational Abilities Knowledge Exchange: Everyone likes CAKE - How do we make it better?
  • Marion Weinzierl, University of Cambridge, ICCS

  • Oscar Seip, SSI, University of Manchester

  • Nick Brown, EPCC

  • Eleanor Broadway, EPCC

  • Tobias Weinzierl, University of Durham

  • Andrew Gait, University of Manchester, Research Software Engineer (Research IT) 

  • Stef Piatek, Society of RSE and University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre 

Abstract

Digital Research Infrastructure for computational sciences is a vast field, with a large number of participants, stakeholders and specialists, as well as many subfields and applications. Not everyone here is aware of everyone else, has the time to go to all the events or keep up with all the blog posts and papers. Similarly, the general public might not be aware of career paths and the potential impact of the work of research technical professionals. Therefore, the key question is how can we, as a community, ensure that knowledge is exchanged as efficiently as possible? The current situation risks people reinventing the wheel and missing out on opportunities.

In this workshop, we will invite the audience to reflect and provide feedback on existing and proposed methods of knowledge exchange and outreach. The goal is to create a knowledge exchange expert community and framework. In particular, we are also interested in hearing how to be more inclusive and accessible in facilitating knowledge exchange.

Join us and share your knowledge - there might even be cake!

Audience

We aim to attract a diverse audience for this workshop, so that we can collect many different perspectives, ideas and opinions. There are no special requirements or prerequisites for the session, but we are planning to use an online polling tool, such as Mentimeter or sli.do, for part of the session, and therefore it would be useful if participants brought a device such as a phone or a laptop.

Session 1.5 - The Research Software Quality Kit (RSQKit): introduction & ways to get involved
  • Shoaib Sufi, University of Manchester
  • Aleksandra Nenadic, University of Manchester

Abstract

The Research Software Quality Toolkit (RSQKit - https://everse.software/RSQKit/) lists curated best practices in improving the quality of your research software. It is intended for use by researchers, research software engineers, those managing and procuring funding for projects with a large research software component, those running research infrastructures involving software and those developing research software related policy at organisations and in projects. 

These practices are informed by software excellence and quality in the context of research; with a focus on FAIR software, Open Research, community development and software engineering practices at different tiers of research software (analysis scripts, prototype tools and research software infrastructure).

RSQKit links to tools and resources which support best practices. It includes software quality dimensions and links to indicators and tasks to guide your usage of the best practice.

Research community use cases and usage of software practices is highlighted across the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Science Clusters (https://science-clusters.eu/) to inform and inspire.

Research software roles (e.g. the Research Software Engineer (RSE) and Researchers who code) are included to document the sources and practitioners of research software. This brings attention to the need for credit and career paths for research software related roles.
 
Best practices include links to training resources and existing guides and materials; giving a conceptual overview where existing material exists to help highlight existing best practice resources and not duplicate effort.

The workshop will introduce RSQKit, its aims and architecture, optional engagement with the EVERSE Network - https://everse.software/network/ and how to make contributions. All levels of experience and expertise are welcome. 

Ways of contributing include (but are not limited to):

Suggesting tools
Suggesting existing best practices
Suggesting what is missing
Writing about research software use 
Reviewing content
Writing guidance on research software quality topics
Suggesting related standards, training and communities of practice

You can find RSQKit on GitHub at - https://github.com/EVERSE-ResearchSoftware/RSQKit (issues and pull requests always welcome).

Audience

Anyone with an interest in research software is welcome, some knowledge of software best practices is useful as it is being able to use GitHub to raise issues and/or raise pull requests but it’s not essential. Even if you are just interested in the topic we believe you will find value and be able to contribute.

Day 2: Wednesday 14 May 2025, 14:40 - 15:40 BST

Session 2.1 - Here, use mine: how to make software that others want to use
  • Sangeeta Bhatia, Imperial College London

  • Dr Sabine van Elsland, Imperial College London

Abstract

All of us interact with various software tools in our professional and daily lives, encountering frustration and less often, delight in the process. While some tools seamlessly integrate into our workflows, others prove to be cumbersome, unintuitive, or poorly documented. If alternatives exist, we will even abandon a tool rather than persist in fighting it. But what makes a good software tool, and what will get even the non-tech inclined excited to use it? 

This workshop will explore the attributes that determine whether a tool is adopted or abandoned, with a special focus on non-technical users. By non-technical users, we mean anyone using a tool outside their core expertise, who may lack familiarity with workarounds or specialised knowledge. By understanding the barriers these users face, we can develop insights into the attributes that make software tools more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly. We are particularly interested in tools that facilitate data collection, but are very keen to hear from developers and users of all software tools. 

We will begin by sharing our own experiences of navigating software challenges when performing a common task—extracting data from a scientific paper. This exercise will serve as a relatable starting point. We will then break up into smaller groups for discussions, guided by open-ended prompts designed to elicit different perspectives on usability, accessibility, and design. This will be your chance to vent and channel your frustrations about all the awful software tools that you have been forced to use. Following these discussions, we will reconvene to synthesise all your good and bad experiences into key takeaways for the user and developer community.

To create a persistent resource, we will document the insights generated in this workshop in a blog post on the Software Sustainability Institute website. Additionally, we aim to develop a collaborative publication on this topic, inviting all participants to contribute as co-authors. Through this workshop, we hope to foster a broader conversation on designing software that meets the needs of time-poor, non-technical users, ultimately leading to more widely adopted and effective tools.

Audience

The workshop is for everyone who has used software in their daily or professional lives. No prior skills or knowledge is needed.

Session 2.2 - AI-Driven tools for Software Repository Analysis, Discovery, Reusability & Interaction
  • Rosa Filgueira, University of Edinburgh / EPCC

Abstract

Software repositories are fundamental to research and innovation, yet they remain difficult to navigate, evaluate, and reuse due to their complexity and heterogeneous content. This demo presents a suite of AI-driven tools—RepoGraph, RepoSnipy, inspect4py, and RepoSim—designed to enhance the findability, reusability, and understandability of software repositories.

1) inspect4py performs static code analysis, extracting metadata, dependencies, and execution details to facilitate repository comprehension.

2) RepoGraph provides an interactive knowledge graph-based interface, enabling users to explore repositories visually and perform semantic queries.

3) RepoSim leverages deep learning embeddings to generate multi-level representations of repositories, supporting similarity-based recommendations.

4) RepoSnipy functions as a semantic search engine, clustering repositories based on embeddings to improve discovery and reuse.

These tools collectively advance the FAIRness of software repositories by integrating ML, NLP, and information extraction techniques, making repositories more accessible, interoperable, and reusable. 

In this demo, I will showcase their functionalities, provide interactive hands-on exploration (for some of the tools), and discuss future enhancements for repository-driven AI research.

Audience

In this demo session, I will showcase the functionalities of inspect4py, RepoSim, RepoSnipy, and RepoGraph, and discuss future enhancements for repository-driven AI research. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with some of the tools hands-on:

1) inspect4py and RepoSim will be accessible via interactive Google Colab Notebooks. Meaning not installation is required to execute those. 

2) RepoSnipy will be available via HuggingFace, allowing participants to explore its semantic search capabilities.

3) RepoGraph will be demonstrated live (by myself), with a guided walkthrough showcasing its knowledge graph-based repository exploration features. 

#Prerequisites & Expected Knowledge

No prior AI or NLP experience is required, but familiarity with software repositories (e.g., GitHub, GitLab) and basic code analysis concepts will be beneficial.

Those interested in FAIR principles, repository metadata extraction, and semantic search will find the session particularly relevant.

# Software & Installation Requirements

No pre-installation is required—tools will be accessible via web interfaces and Google Colab Notebooks. 

Participants who wish to explore the tools beyond the session will receive links to documentation and repositories for further experimentation.

# Expected Number of Participants

There is no strict participant limit, but the session will include an interactive Q&A and discussion segment to engage attendees and gather feedback.

This session will provide an interactive, hands-on introduction to AI-powered software repository analysis, discovery, and reusability, offering practical tools and insights for researchers and software engineers.

Session 2.3 - Improving Carbon Literacy for Researchers
  • Andy Turner, EPCC, University of Edinburgh

  • Loïc Lannelouge, University of Cambridge

  • Kirsty Pringle, SSI

Abstract

Due to the urgency of the climate crisis, UK universities have committed to Net Zero targets.  In line with this, various initiatives and projects aim to help researchers better understand the emissions arising from their research, identify actions to reduce their impact. However, many researchers, even those familiar with emissions sources and mitigation strategies, struggle to grasp how the emissions from their work (e.g., software use or DRI) compare to other sources.

While financial costs and benefits are intuitive (e.g., £1M = rough cost of two semi-detached houses), carbon costs and benefits such as 1,000 kgCO2e (kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) lack a similarly intuitive reference frame. In other words, most of us have intuitive financial literacy but lack a similar carbon literacy. 

Carbon literacy is important in itself in the face of the climate emergency, but is also key to making computational research more environmentally sustainable: researchers need it to have an understanding of what is a proportionate carbon footprint for a project before starting it, and of what the efficacy of “green” behaviours is. Without a relatable context, it becomes difficult for researchers to assess the scale of emissions from and impact of emissions reductions from their work and actions. 

In this mini-workshop we will use the experience gained from the Green Algorithms project and the ARCHER2 national supercomputing service to provide an interactive session where researchers, RSEs and RTPs can become more carbon literate by learning about the scale of emissions from different research activities and how they measure up against other sources of emissions. We will provide practical examples of how an individual can go about quantifying emissions from different aspects of their work. Along with using existing tools for calculating emissions from their non-work activities this gives attendees a framework for empowering individuals to make changes in both their work and personal lives to have the maximum impact on eliminating and reducing carbon emissions. In addition we will use the Green DiSC framework as a guide we will explore concrete actions researchers can take and will investigate the potential carbon savings of the different actions.

Audience

This session is aimed at all people involved in research, including both researchers and those enabling researchers (e.g. researchers, RSEs and RTPs). No prior knowledge or experience is required to participate. 

A laptop or smartphone will be required to take part in the interactive quiz.

Session 2.4 - Skills and competencies framework for research software and data professionals 

Please note that this workshop is 30 minutes - 14:40 - 15:10 BST

  • Aleksandra Nenadic, University of Manchester

  • Dave Horsfall, Newcastle University

  • Eli Chadwick, University of Manchester

  • Aman Goel, University of Manchester

  • Phil Reed, University of Manchester

  • Adrian D’Alessandro, Imperial College London

  • Jonathan Cooper, UCL ARC

Abstract

The development of the RSE skills and competencies framework began as a hack-day idea at Collaborations Workshop two years ago, aiming to define skills and workforce development pathways for Research Software Engineers (RSEs). Since then, the work has continued through the RSE Competencies Toolkit group (https://github.com/RSEToolkit/rse-competencies-toolkit), focusing on three key areas - definition of the skills and competencies framework, a web app for visualising the framework and different use cases for the framework identified through various consultations with the RSE community.

The group is now exploring rebranding and expanding the framework to encompass a broader range of digital technical skills. This includes competencies related to software, data, and digital research infrastructures used in research by professionals beyond RSEs—such as data librarians, archivists, stewards, and digital research technical professionals. The expansion also aims to cover various other disciplines, including GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), where individuals may not typically identify as RSEs. The competencies covered include not just technological skills, but also communication, leadership, and other personal and interpersonal aspects.

At the workshop, we will present the progress made so far and engage the community in gathering insights on different aspects of the framework:

- Competency-specific input: seeking expert feedback on particular skill areas (e.g., AI or HPC), ensuring accuracy, and compiling relevant training materials to develop structured learning pathways.

- Domain- or role-specific adaptation: exploring customizations for specific domains and tailoring subsets of existing skills to different software, data, or infrastructure-related roles.

- Framework-wide review: conducting a high-level evaluation to identify potential gaps and opportunities for improvement.

This collaborative effort will help refine and expand the framework, making it more inclusive and applicable across diverse research and technical roles.

Audience

No prior knowledge is required, and participation is open to all. This session follows a "show and tell" format, where attendees will review the existing skills and competencies framework, share insights on the skills they use in their daily work and research disciplines, and provide feedback to help refine the framework.

Session 2.5 - Safeguarding Research & Culture: Now the data needs us!

Please note that this workshop is 30 minutes - 15:10- 15:40 BST

  • Jez Cope, The British Library

  • Henrik Schönemann, HU Berlin

Abstract

“We must become undisciplined. The work we do now requires new modes and methods of research and teaching; new ways of entering and leaving the archives.” — Christina Sharpe, In the Wake

Our archives are vulnerable. No single archive is permanent, nor large enough to store all of our cultures at risk. Modern archival methods are robust, but no archive alone can withstand the multitude of threats we are currently facing.

The destruction of knowledge and cultural heritage has happened, and therefore it can happen again. We are in the middle of that happening, whether it is caused by human action or natural causes. However, digital information can be copied easily and quickly.

Safeguarding Research & Culture (SRC) is creating an alternative infrastructure for archiving and disseminating of cultural heritage and scientific knowledge. We seek to preserve cultural memory in a way that traditional archives cannot. Together, we can ensure that our cultural, intellectual and scientific heritage exists in multiple copies, in multiple places, and that no single entity or group of entities can make it all disappear.

Our archive is built according to the principles of FAIR and CARE, based on open technologies and standards, and resilient against loss via meaningfully distributed storage.

We focus on publicly available material, like websites, datasets and other media, that are being altered or deleted. Our collective memory manifests in different amplitudes and digital-born artefacts — from large datasets, spanning decades of research on society, to personal wikis and blogs on and by marginalised people. No matter its scope or origin, all of this knowledge was valuable to someone, somewhen, and carries with it a potential to be so again. We are equally interested in archiving ‘big’ as well as ‘small’ data.

Everyone, from individuals to institutions, can participate by accessing, contributing, and supporting these archival infrastructures. Our work also includes documenting and providing resources and knowledge to enable participation in different aspects of this endeavour.

Audience

No specific experience needed. You'll need a laptop with an internet connection, and a desire to save some data!

(Some things will be easier if you have a BitTorrent client installed.)

Session 2.6 - Contributing to The Turing Way: an open community focused on best practices in data science
  • Arielle Bennett, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Alexandra Araujo Alvarez, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Anne Lee Steele, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Carlos Martinez, Netherlands eScience Center
  • Emma Karoune, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Esther Plomp, University of Aruba
  • Léllé Demertzi, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Malvika Sharan, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Kirstie Whitaker, UC Berkeley

Abstract

The Turing Way workshop will inspire you and equip you to contribute to our bi-yearly hackathon event - the Book Dash. This event is being held as part of CW25 hack day and we will host additional online contribution days (20-21 May). 

The Turing Way is an open science, open collaboration, and community-driven project. We involve and support a diverse community of contributors to make data science accessible, comprehensible and effective for everyone. Our goal is to provide all the information that researchers, data scientists, software engineers, policymakers, and other practitioners in academia, industry, government and the public sector need to ensure that the projects they work on are easy to reproduce and reuse.

The Turing Way was launched in 2019, at the Collaborations workshop, as a guide to reproducibility, by providing tools, methods, and practices to address the reproducibility crisis in science. With the community's reflections on the wider issues and the need for more comprehensive skills for best practices in data science, we later added guides for project design, ethics, communication and collaboration in 2020. What began as an open-source project building a handbook for data science, has become a dynamic, global collaborative community with 450+ co-authors and 300+ chapters in our community-led handbook to reproducible, ethical and collaborative data science. 

In this workshop, we will focus on the CW25 theme: Future-proofing research software: evolving together as a diverse community.

Come and find out about The Turing Way, our Book Dash, and the different ways you can contribute and start generating ideas for your own contributions.

Audience

Good for all present at CW25, especially anyone interested in learning about inclusive and reproducible data science and contributing to an open source community. Prior technical experience is not required.

Kyro Hartzenberg

Kyro HartzenbergKyro Hartzenberg is the SSI Events Manager, based at EPCC in Edinburgh. She has experience in leading nationwide knowledge sharing programmes and fostering meaningful stakeholder relationships. Her passion for impactful collaboration and innovative solutions drives her work at SSI.

Neil Chue Hong

Neil Chue HongNeil Chue Hong is the founding Director and Principal Investigator of the Software Sustainability Institute, and is based at the University of Edinburgh. He enables research software users and developers to drive the continued improvement and impact of research software, and is responsible for representing both the Institute and UK researchers at a national and international level.

Philippa Broadbent

Philippa Broadbent joined the Software Sustainability Institute in 2022 and is based in the Southampton Research Software Group at the University of Southampton. She develops research software across a broad range of academic disciplines and delivers training in foundational software development for researchers. Before becoming a Research Software Engineer, she completed a PhD in Psychology.

Ella Kaye

Ella KayeElla Kaye is a Research Software Engineer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick, UK, and a fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute. She works to increase sustainability and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) in the R Project. She also runs rainbowR, a community of practice that connects, supports and promotes LGBTQ+ people who code in R, and spreads awareness of LGBTQ+ issues through data-driven activism.

Eli Chadwick

Eli ChadwickEli Chadwick (he/they) is a Senior Research Software Engineer at the University of Manchester. He primarily works on metadata tools and specifications, but he's also interested in training, building inclusive communities, and accessibility of research software. He is an SSI Fellow, a Carpentries Instructor, and a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies.

Malvika Sharan

Malvika Sharan

Malvika Sharan is a cofounder of OLS (Open Life Science Ltd.), a non-profit organisation dedicated to skills and capacity building in open science. Malvika is also a senior researcher at The Alan Turing Institute with a focus on open research and community building. She co-leads a team of research community managers and a community project, The Turing Way, which aims to make data science reproducible, collaborative, ethical, and inclusive for researchers around the world.

Malvika is an active contributor to several open science initiatives, a Software Sustainability Institute fellow and one of the 2024 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™.

Pauline Nyakairu Karega

Pauline KaregaPauline Nyakairu Karega is a second year PhD student in Earth and Environment Sciences, and Computer Science at the University of Manchester. She co-leads an initiative to increase awareness of Bioinformatics and Open Science in Kenya.

Anita Banerji

Anita Banerji

Anita Banerji is a Research Associate at the Software Sustainability Institute. Her work includes evaluating the impact of the SSI Fellowship Programme and exploring Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity in the RSE community.

Anita originally has a science background having studied Physics at Newcastle University and Computer Science at Manchester University. She was awarded a PhD in Medical Image Analysis and has worked as a post-doc in this field as well as a commercial software engineer. More recently Anita has become interested in teaching, training and development, and how we can create inclusive environments. She has done post-doc projects in Education Research and co-produced an evaluation project in Student Mental Health.

Ruth Nanjala

Ruth NanjalaRuth Nanjala is a dedicated leader shaping impactful initiatives in research, mentorship, and community building. She previously served as a Research Partner with the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) for the Inclusive Research Software Engineering (RSE) project, contributing to efforts that promote equity and accessibility in RSE. Ruth founded "My Science Journey" platform to connect scientists across career stages, fostering a vibrant community that promotes networking, mentorship, and inspiration for future generations of scientists. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the University of Oxford, where her research integrates computational and statistical approaches to human genetics. Passionate about sustainable and inclusive research practices, Ruth actively engages in open science, interdisciplinary collaborations, and capacity-building initiatives to advance equitable access to data-driven methodologies.

Kirstie Whitaker

Kirstie WithakerDr Kirstie Whitaker is the executive director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, returning in January 2025 to where she completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2012. Kirstie led the Tools, Practices and Systems research programme at The Alan Turing Institute from 2020-2024. Kirstie founded The Turing Way, an openly developed educational resource that enables researchers and citizen scientists across government, industry, academia and third sector organizations to embed open source practices into their work. Kirstie has co-created, hired, and set strategic goals for teams of Research Community Managers and Research Application Managers, two examples of "Research Infrastructure Roles". She is an advocate for delivering the most impactful, ethical and efficient data science research and innovation through teams of specialised professionals working together to address interdisciplinary social and scientific challenges.

Tom Wilkinson

Tom WilkinsonTom Wilkinson has worked for and with government organisations, at various levels and around the world, spending a decade developing and improving use of data to inform policy, strategy, and operational decisions. He has extensive hands-on experience working across Data Science, Data Analysis, Data Architecture, Software Development and Data Engineering, and has provided technical advice to blue chip companies and startups as well as intergovernmental organisations.

Gold Sponsor

SMARTHEP, Synergies between Machine learning, Real-Time analysis and Hybrid architectures for efficient Event Processing and decision making, is a European Training Network (ETN) with the aim of training a new generation of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to use real-time decision-making effectively leading to data-collection and analysis becoming synonymous.

View the Sponsorship Packages

Financial assistance (applications now closed)

The Software Sustainability Institute is committed to fostering and supporting a diverse, equitable and inclusive research software community. We are proud to offer financial assistance to members of underrepresented groups, students/early career stages, and others who may not be able to attend or fully participate in the event otherwise.

Our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity

To make this event fair and inclusive to everyone, you will need to read, agree to and abide by our Participation Guidelines.

Stirling Court Hotel is committed to ensuring they have accessible accommodation, dining and conference space for their guests. You can also read about our accessibility practices on the CW25 webpage.

Steering Committee

We would like to thank the CW25 Steering Committee for their contributions to date. In no particular order:

  • Kyro Hartzenberg, Events Manager (SSI), University of Edinburgh
  • Selina Aragon, Associate Director of Operations (SSI), University of Edinburgh
  • Shoaib Sufi, Project Portfolio Manager (eScience Lab) / Fellowship Lead (SSI), University of Manchester
  • Lata Nautiyal, Lecturer, University of Roehampton , London
  • Emma Karoune, Principal Researcher and Lead of Research Community Management Team, The Alan Turing Institute and SSI Fellow.
  • Fotis Psomopoulos, Senior Researcher, INAB|CERTH
  • Kwabena Amponsah, Senior Research Software Engineer, University of Nottingham
  • Seun Olufemi, Resident Fellow, OLS (formerly Open Life Science)
  • Dr Alexandra Simperler, Consultant, Simperler Consulting
  • James Byrne, Lead Research Software Engineer, Digital Innovation Team, British Antarctic Survey
  • Gaurav Bhalerao, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Oxford
  • Deborah Udoh, Research Software Engineer and Community Manager, OLS (formerly Open Life Science)
  • Patricia A. Loto, Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Agrarian Sciences (UNNE, National University of the Northeast) and Metadocencia

Header image by by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay.

Back to Top Button Back to top