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HPC Birds of a Feather at RSECon23

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• 31 May 2022

Why science needs more research software engineers

• Chris Woolston 0

Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana.

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Paul Richmond is a research software engineer in the United Kingdom. Credit: Shelley Richmond

In March 2012, a group of like-minded software developers gathered at the University of Oxford, UK, for what they called the Collaborations Workshop. They had a common vocation — building code to support scientific research — but different job titles. And they had no clear career path. The attendees coined a term to describe their line of work: research software engineer (RSE).

A decade later, RSE societies have sprung up in the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, Australia and the United States. In the United Kingdom, at least 31 universities have their own RSE groups, a sign of the growing importance of the profession, says Paul Richmond, an RSE group leader at the University of Sheffield and a past president of the country’s Society of Research Software Engineering. Nature spoke with Richmond about life as an RSE, the role of software in the research enterprise and the state of the field as it reaches its tenth anniversary.

What do RSEs do?

Fundamentally, RSEs build software to support scientific research. They generally don’t have research questions of their own — they develop the computer tools to help other people to do cool things. They might add features to existing software, clear out bugs or build something from scratch. But they don’t just sit in front of a computer and write code. They have to be good communicators who can embed themselves in a team.

What sorts of projects do they work on?

Almost every field of science runs on software, so an RSE could find themselves working on just about anything. In my career, I’ve worked on software for imaging cancer cells and modelling pedestrian traffic. As a postdoc, I worked on computational neuroscience. I don’t know very much about these particular research fields, so I work closely with the oncologists or neuroscientists or whomever to develop the software that’s needed.

Building code is just one part of the role of a research software engineer. Credit: Norman Posselt/Getty

Why do so many universities support their own RSE groups?

Some high-powered researchers at the top of the academic ladder can afford to hire their own RSE. That engineer might be dedicated to maintaining a single piece of software that’s been around for 10 or 20 years. But most research groups need — or can afford —an RSE only on an occasional basis. If their university has an RSE group, they can hire an in-house engineer for one day a week, or for a month at a time, or whatever they need. In that way, the RSE group is like a core facility. The university tries to ensure a steady workflow for the group, but that’s usually not a problem — there’s no shortage of projects to work on.

What else do RSEs do?

A big part of the job is raising awareness about the importance of quality software. An RSE might train a postdoc or graduate student to develop software on their own. Or they might run a seminar on good software practices. In theory, training 50 people could be more impactful than working on a single project. In practice, it’s often hard for RSEs to find the time for teaching, mentorship and advocacy because they’re so busy supporting research.

Do principal investigators (PIs) appreciate the need for RSEs?

It’s mixed. In the past, researchers weren’t always incentivized to use or create good software. But that’s changing. Many journals now require authors to publish code, and that code has to be FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable and reproducible. That last term is very important: good software is a crucial component of research reproducibility. We explain to PIs that they need reliable code so they won’t have to retract their paper six months later.

Who should consider a career as an RSE?

Many RSEs started out as PhD students or postdocs who worked on software to support their own project. They realized that they enjoyed that part of the job more than the actual research. RSEs certainly have the skills to work in industry but they thrive in an environment of cutting-edge science in academia.

Most RSEs have a PhD — I have a PhD in computer graphics — but that’s not necessarily a requirement. Some RSEs end up on the tenure track; I was recently promoted to professor. Many others work as laboratory technicians or service staff. I would encourage any experienced developers with an interest in research to consider RSE as a career. I would also love to see more people from under-represented groups join the field. We need more diversity going forward.

What’s your advice for RSE hopefuls?

Try working on a piece of open-source software. If possible, do some training in a collaborative setting. If you have questions, talk to a working RSE. Consider joining an association. The UK Society of Research Software Engineering is always happy to advise people about getting into the field or how to stand out in a job application. People in the United States can reach out to the US Research Software Engineer Association.

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If you’re a PhD student or postdoc, give yourself a challenge: try to convince your supervisors or PI that they really need to embrace good software techniques. If you can change their minds, it’s a good indication that you have the passion and drive to succeed.

What do you envision for the profession over the next 10 years?

I want to see RSEs as equals in the academic environment. Software runs through the entire research process, but professors tend to get most of the recognition and prestige. Pieces of software can have just as much impact as certain research papers, some of them much more so. If RSEs can get the recognition and rewards that they deserve, then the career path will be that much more visible and attractive.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01516-2

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Talks, workshops and panels

Research software engineering conference.

Join us in September 2024 for the eighth annual conference for Research Software Engineering

You are invited to Newcastle this September, as the international Research Software Engineering community convenes for an exciting week of sessions, speakers, and networking. We will bring together a mix of hundreds of engineers, developers, researchers, community managers, funders and educators on a shared journey of learning and growth.

Open to all registered attendees, our keynote addresses feature inspirational and visionary thought leaders from academia and industry. We are pleased to welcome Anne-Marie Imafidon (one of Forbes Magazine's top 50 women in tech globally), Muzlifah Haniffa (Interim Head of Cellular Genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute), and Martin Sharkey (founder and CEO of CloudKubed) to speak at RSECon24.

RSECon aims to deliver a relevant, inclusive, and engaging conference experience for the RSE community, featuring a balanced and varied programme that caters to all roles and skill levels. We are committed to creating an environment where individuals from diverse backgrounds can fully participate and contribute.

We’re hosting a series of enjoyable and relaxed social events and activities designed to help you mingle and network with friends and colleagues from the community.

Community Awards

We’d like to recognise three amazing people for their outstanding contribution to the RSE Community in the past 12 months. The categories are : Impact , Rising Star , and Training & Education .

In-Person Attendance

Join us in Newcastle to experience the vibrant atmosphere of our conference with in-person attendance. Connect face-to-face with other RSEs, engage in live discussions, and forge valuable connections. Secure your ticket today.

• Access to all talks, workshops and posters
• Complementary lunch and refreshments from Tuesday to Thursday
• Welcome evening social on Monday 2nd, with food provided
• Networking evening social on Tuesday 3rd, with food provided
• Additional social and networking opportunities

Remote Access

Secure your remote access ticket now and be part of the conference from wherever you are.

• Live streams of all talks and workshops with online Q&A
• Online poster sessions with Q&A facility
• Networking and social activities

Important Dates

Important actions leading up to your RSECon24 journey

Call for submissions

20th March - 8th May

Call for reviewers

25th March - 30th April

26th June - 28th July

Registration

15th April - 31st July

We are offering a limited number of bursaries for those who would otherwise be unable to attend the conference in-person. For more details please visit the bursary page.

Participant Guidances

We have compiled the following guidances to help presenters, session chairs and volunteers.

Guidance for Talks, Walkthroughs, Panels, BoFs, Hackathons and Workshops

Guidance for Poster Presentations

Session Chairs

Guidance for Session Chairs

Guidance for Volunteers

Special thanks to our sponsors

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 Community 

Dimitrios Theodorakis

Foundation Scientific Software Engineer, Met Office (UK National Weather Service)

In climate modelling we have a need for speed! At RSECon24 I guarantee you'll learn new tricks to optimise your code, build your network, and get tips from RSEs in other fields that use the same languages as you. In addition to workshop sessions which have directly benefitted my day-to-day work, I also met tons of potential collaborators many of whom I now work with to deliver new software training with tools I discovered at RSECon.

Prof. Daniel S. Katz

Chief Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

RSECon has given me the opportunity to talk to members of the UK and global RSE community, to learn about issues and solutions that I can both contribute and adapt, and to think about new research challenges. RSECon is the closest we currently have to a global meeting on research and issues around research software engineering. It is the place where you are most likely to find members of the global community researching research software.

Matthew Bluteau

PhD, MBCS, Senior RSE at UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)

It isn't only RSEs that should be interested in RSECon24. I absolutely recommend this conference to anyone in science or engineering who might be called 'the software person' in their group or who is interested in learning how they can improve their research software. RSECon is highly interdisciplinary, researchers from different fields can exchange useful information about computational techniques that are applicable to a wide variety of problems. What excites me most is finding those unique conversations where you feel completely at home and seen by all of those involved. Finding common ground across a wide range of topics is something the RSE community does incredibly well.

Senior Research Infrastructure Engineer at the Health Informatics Centre, University of Dundee

The RSE community is a great bridge between different disciplines and cultures. You might be working on something very niche, but others at RSECon will be using the same tools and processes, and can give you inspiration and new ideas.

Stefanie Reuter

HPC-RSE, Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab

RSECon24 is a great opportunity to get together with my team for an extended period of time and to learn about different developments and training opportunities. A big part of RSECon is social events to allow time for interesting conversations. I like how open and friendly the RSE community is.

See how the previous event unfolded

Get inspired with a selection of the keynotes about the Conference 2022

Society of Research Software Engineering launches

Author:  Neil Chue Hong Posted: 23 Sep 2019 | 12:26

The  Society of Research Software Engineering  launched on 18th September. You can now become a member of the Society and, in doing so, help support software in research and the people who develop it.

The Society developed from the Research Software Engineer (RSE) movement that formed after discussions at the Software Sustainability Institute’s (SSI) 2012 Collaborations Workshop. It is the successor to the UK RSE Association but, unlike the informal Association, it is a legal entity that can hold funds and employ staff. This means that the Society is a truly independent organisation with a single focus: supporting the UK’s RSE community. Regardless of its more formal incarnation, the Society is still a grass-roots organisation run by Trustees elected from its membership.

The UK RSE Association was formed in 2013 to recognise the work of software developers in academia and to improve the career structures available to them. Since then, the movement has gone from strength to strength: encouraging and supporting the creation of sister organisations across the world, and organising an international RSE survey that provides insight into current working conditions and practices.

EPCC played a pivotal role in the RSE story. EPCC’s Rob Baxter coined the term Research Software Engineer at the initial workshop, and EPCC has provided a home and careers for RSEs since its inception. More recently, the  Community of Edinburgh RSEs  has been formed to provide support for RSEs in Edinburgh and a forum to share best practice. EPCC's Andy Turner has served on the committee of the UK RSE Association and as an initial trustee of the Society of Research Software Engineering.

The launch of the Society took place at the inaugural Annual General Meeting, held during the Research Software Engineering Conference at the University of Birmingham. This included pitches from nominees, including most of the current Trustees, who wish to form the first elected committee to run the Society. Voting is now open for the Trustees who will steer the Society in its first year, see  https://society-rse.org/trustees-elections-2019/ .  Note that voting closes on 11 October .

The Research Software Engineering community has grown from a handful of people in 2012 to an international community of thousands. This would not have been possible without the foresight and hard work of a number of people within the community and the continued support of the  Software Sustainability Institute  and EPCC.

The Society of Research Software Engineering website:  https://society-rse.org/

Neil Chue Hong, EPCC  [email protected](link sends e-mail) Simon Hettrick, Software Sustainability Institute  [email protected](link sends e-mail)

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Research Software Engineering Groups in the UK

About rse groups.

Research Software Engineering Groups provide a home for research programmers who collaborate with researchers on multiple research projects

Most Research Software Engineers are employed as Research Associates on individual research projects. But we are particularly interested in the ways in which research organisations bring research programmers together into larger teams, and are trying to maintain a list of such groups here, not just in the UK, but around the world .

These may be formal organisations (like the UCL group), or looser federations (like the Oxford group). They may be based in universities or in national labs or research institutes, and in academic departments or in university IT organisations.

UKRSE hosts an “RSE Leaders” subcomittee, a peer-support group for heads of research software engineering groups. If you run a research programming organisation, and would like to join, please get in touch.

If your place of work meets the above definition, please submit a pull request to this page to add it to the list.

If you are based outside the UK, please see our list of international RSE groups .

List of UK RSE Groups

The Sixth Annual Conference for Research Software Engineering: Tuesday 6th – Thursday 8th September

RSECon2022 has now finished.

• Videos of plenary and parallel sessions are available from the  Society of Research Software Engineering YouTube Channel
• You may be interested in joining us for  RSECon23 in Swansea !

RSECon2022 was held in the Frederick Douglass Centre at Newcastle University with Mark Turner as our Programme Chair.

Mark is Head of Research Software Engineering at Newcastle University and has been heavily involved in the community for a number of years now, serving as a trustee on the society trustee board a few years ago. A number of people volunteered their time on the conference committee ; you can also still see the programme .

The conference will take place from Tuesday 6th to Thursday 8th September with colocated events on the Monday and Friday of that week.

Registration, submissions and programme

Registration is currently closed for RSECon22 – all tickets are sold.

Have a read of a local’s guide to Newcastle .

We had a record number of submissions this year. In total there were 129 submissions, 64 of which were accepted.

For stats nerds who want to drill down a bit more, that’s:

• 71 Talks (34 Accepted)
• 17 Workshops (6 Accepted)
• 10 Walkthroughs (6 Accepted)
• 7 Panels ( Audience-led , Presenter-led ) (6 Accepted)
• 24 Posters (12 Accepted)

There are currently no open calls.

Accommodation

The Newcastle Gateshead Initiative are helping us with discounted accommodation options during the conference (including the evenings before and after the conference to accommodate those travelling further to attend). Please click on the button under Useful Information to the right to see the current list of available hotels.

RSECon22 venues

The main conference venue for the programme and colocated events is: The Frederick Douglass Centre 2 Science Square Newcastle Helix Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 5TG T: 0191 208 1500

Drinks Reception Venue on Monday 5th September:

Wylam Brewery

Casual Dinner Venue on Tuesday 6th September:

By the River Brew

Conference dinner venue on Wednesday 7th September:

Newcastle Civic Centre, Baronial Banqueting Hall

Research Software Engineers

The Research Software Engineering movement started in one of the SSI Collaborations Workshops. Since coining the term in 2012, the SSI has orchestrated a campaign to grow the RSE concept into a large international community.

Changing research culture

Research relies on software, but there has historically been no formal role for software engineers in research. It was during a discussion on this systemic shortcoming at an SSI Collaborations Workshop in 2012 that the term ‘Research Software Engineer’ was coined. 

Over the past ten years, the SSI has campaigned to grow the RSE concept into a large international community. In 2013 the SSI held the first workshop for RSEs, attended by 56 self-described Research Software Engineers. This new community voted unanimously to found an organisation called the UK Research Software Engineers Association (UKRSE), chaired by SSI Deputy Director Simon Hettrick.

In 2015, the SSI founded the RSE Leaders Network to support the creation of new RSE groups, which have increased in number from a single group at UCL to around 40 groups across the UK. The first RSE conference, funded through a bid won by the SSI, not only spawned a successful conference series that runs to this day but also led to the development of nine distinct international RSE associations.

In 2019, the UK RSE Association transformed into the Society of Research Software Engineering . This move enables the Society to hold funds, employ staff, and operate as an independent organisation to represent the interests of the RSE community.

Nurturing the community

Thanks in significant part to the work of the SSI, there is now a great deal of competition among institutions to recruit RSEs, and RSE leaders in particular.

The UK-based RSE movement has attracted interest from all over the world, and the SSI is increasingly helping international partners to emulate its success abroad. There are now nine national RSE associations including in the UK, Africa, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Nordic countries, and the USA.

If you are interested in how RSE Groups have been successful in the UK, then you can read about the experiences of RSE group leaders in "The secret behind the growth of RSE Groups in the UK”.

Building an international RSE community

The UK-based RSE movement has attracted interest from all over the world, and the SSI is increasingly helping international partners to emulate its success abroad. There are now nine national RSE associations including the UK, Africa, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Nordic countries, and the USA. The SSI has supported the growth of many of them. In 2017, the International Council of RSE  Associations was set up to ensure cohesion and to encourage discussion around international issues.

By facilitating collaboration between these international groups, the SSI has ensured that decisions are taken collectively and without unnecessary duplication of time, effort, and resources. Thanks to the efforts of the SSI and other bodies, there are now around 10,000 RSEs worldwide. 

“I absolutely love the Society of Research Software Engineers, we need the rest of the world (and funders) to catch up. Data analysis is done by writing code. Efficient, creative, performant data tools are built by writing code. You need people who professionally write code.” Professor Ben Goldacre

RSE activities and reports

 From running international RSE surveys to organising and supporting the renowned annual RSE Conference, the SSI has orchestrated a campaign to grow the RSE concept into a large international community.

In 2016 we began surveying hundreds of RSEs in the UK and Canada to learn more about their demographics, impact and careers. In 2017 and 2018, we also conducted surveys in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. The latest survey was conducted in 2022 and comprised eight countries, covering all aspects of the practice of research software engineering. A summary of all surveys can be found here .

The first RSE conference took place in 2016. It exceeded expectations – the conference attracted 202 people from 14 different countries. RSECon (the Society of Research Software Engineering ’s annual conference) now attracts over 400 attendees. The event is entirely funded by corporate sponsorship, which provides sufficient surplus to fund the work of the Society. In 2020, when physical gatherings became impossible due to the pandemic, the SSI worked with the Society to swiftly improvise a virtual alternative called SORSE (a Series of Online Research Software Events), consisting of one event every month over a six-month period. The conference has continued to flourish thanks to this determined and enterprising spirit.

The RSE Network published a State of the Nation (10.5281/zenodo.495360) report in 2017, describing the growth of the RSE community.

UNIVERSE-HPC

The worldwide community now has approximately 10,000 Research Software Engineers (RSEs) thanks to the efforts of the SSI and other organizations. However, there is still a scarcity of RSEs, partly due to the absence of a well-defined training path.

To improve this, the SSI is collaborating with the RSE community to create a repository of open-source training materials at the master level called UNIVERSE-HPC. This initiative will enable candidates from diverse backgrounds to pursue fulfilling and valuable careers as RSEs.

Further reading

Below is a selection of articles that provide further context on the RSE movement in the UK and internationally.

• The Society of Research Software Engineering
• A not-so-brief history of RSEs
• Ten reasons to be a Research Software Engineer
• Why Science Needs More Research Software Engineers
• Life as an RSE: a terrible career choice?
• Scientific coding and software engineering: What's the difference?
• The Craftsperson and the Scholar
• RSE conferences

Advanced Computing Research Centre

What is research software engineering.

A growing number of people in academia combine expertise in programming with an intricate understanding of research. Although this combination of skills is extremely valuable, these people lack a formal place in the academic system. This means there is no easy way to recognise their contribution, to reward them, or to represent their views. Without a name, it was difficult for people to rally around a cause, so the term  Research Software Engineer was created .

Regardless of their formal job title, Research Software Engineers are people who;

• are employed to develop software for research,
• tend to spend more time developing software than conducting research,
• can be employed as a postdoctoral researcher, even though they predominantly work on software development,
• are you the people who does computers in the research group,
• are sometimes not named on research papers despite playing a fundamental part in developing the software used to create them, and
• typically lack the metrics needed to progress their academic career, like papers and conference presentations, despite having made a significant contribution through software

If you identify with many of the above statements, then it is likely you are a Research Software Engineer (or RSE).

The Research Software Engineering Group at Bristol brings together RSEs from across the University. We work together with the national Society of Research Software Engineering  to share best practice, lobby funders and universities to support sustainable RSE careers, and to network with each other.

Research Software Engineers: what they are and where to find them

December 9, 2021

It does not matter in what field you work in: nowadays, it is nearly impossible to carry out any kind of research without specialised software. It might be a complex modelling tool that needs to run on a supercomputer several days to give you some result; it might be the good old Excel, highly criticized lately but still hard to beat in many aspects; it might be a program to manage and keep tidy your references and bibliography… All in all, software is everywhere!

Very often, this software – research software – is developed by the researchers themselves. They start as small pieces of code to analyse some data or produce some plots for a paper. Then, over time, that code grows in size, complexity, features, and usefulness for the whole research group. By the time those researchers – nearly always PhD students or postdocs – need to move on to another institution, the software they have created has become an indispensable tool for their colleagues. Nevertheless, there is a problem: only them, as the creators, know how it works, how to improve it, or how to solve issues when they appear (and they will appear). It is not sustainable and, once the developers are gone, the software will eventually die and disappear. What a waste of resources!

Research software engineers (RSE) were born to sort this out – among other things. The term was coined in 2012, at a workshop organised by the Software Sustainability Institute [ 1 ] to describe people with expertise in programming but also with a deep understanding of how research works. We might arrive at this role – not necessarily a job title – from a software engineering background or from a research background (this is my case, for example [ 2 ]). Either way, our purpose is the same: to ensure that software developed as part of any research is of high quality and sustainable, creates impact, and it is acknowledged as a first-class research output. We facilitate bringing that code developed by researchers to the best of their abilities up to a state where it can withstand the test of time, adapt to the ever-changing goals of research, and create a thriving community of users and contributors around itself.

The way we do this takes multiple forms and is highly dependent on the institution. Sometimes, we directly take over the software, rewrite it totally or partially to follow best coding practices and patterns, document it, and hand it back to the researchers. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the training: we teach researchers how to create sustainable software themselves, to start with. The most famous public initiative along these lines, but not the only one, are the Software Carpentry courses [ 3 ], but we also offer bespoke training courses whenever it is needed. In the middle, we have my favourite type of projects, those in which we work alongside researchers supporting them in improving their software. These might take longer to be completed but the result gets the best of both worlds: the software is now sustainable, and researchers know how to keep it that way or develop brand new software following the same principles. 

RSEs can now be found in most of the big universities in the United Kingdom. Sometimes, like in the case of Imperial College where I lead the RSE Team, they are part of the central services of the university, helping all researchers across all Faculties. In other cases, they are embedded in specific Departments or even big research groups with important software needs. Being an RSE is a relatively new concept, and most probably you have never heard of us before. You might have one of us around the corner and you would not even know! But here we are: look for us – or check the webpage of the Society or RSEs, where there is a list of RSE teams across the UK [ 4 ]. We can help you make your software as valuable – or more – as any paper you will ever write, and chances are you will get new invaluable skills for the modern world of research in the process!

By Diego Alonso Álvarez , @ dalonsoa . Research Software Engineer Team Lead, RCS-ICT, Imperial College London.

More information:

• Research Software Engineers. Software Sustainability Institute, 2021. Available online here .
• From Researcher to RSE: my career path. Software Sustainability Institute, 2021. Available online here .
• Software Carpentry, 2021. Available online here .
• Society of RSEs, 2021. Available online here .
• Category: New technologies , Blog

Research Software Engineer Team Lead, RCS-ICT, Imperial College London.

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Research Software Engineers

This is the website of the international research software engineering community.

Research Software Engineers are people who combine professional software expertise with an understanding of research. They go by various job titles but the term Research Software Engineer (RSE) is fast gaining international recognition.

On 10th October 2024 we'are celebrating the International RSE Day ! Read more ...

National/multinational rse associations.

BE-RSE - Belgium Research Software Engineers community DE-RSE - Society for Research Software in Germany NL-RSE - The community of Research Software Engineers in the Netherlands NORDIC-RSE - Nordic Research Software Engineers Community RSE-AUNZ - The RSE Association of Australia and New Zealand SocRSE - Society of Research Software Engineering - UK US-RSE - The US Research Software Engineer Association Danish RSE - Danish Research Software Engineers Community DEVLOG - French Research Software Engineers

Observing/Developing RSE Associations

See the Associations page

About this site

In January 2018, leaders of national RSE associations, groups and related initiatives from around the world came together in London for the first International RSE Leaders Workshop. This website and some initial blog posts (see blog ) were created by breakout groups at this meeting.

The International Network of RSE Associations was established as a loose grouping of the people leading national associations, but in January 2021 the International Council of RSE Associations was created as a forum to communicate and formally meet to ensure cohesion between associations and to provide a platform for open discussion around international issues and affairs. For more information, please see the Council page.

RSE Conference 2023

The Seventh Annual Conference for Research Software Engineering

RSECon23 has now finished! RSECon23 was held at the Great Hall on the Bay Campus of Swansea University, with Ed Bennett as our Programme Chair. The conference took place in the week beginning Monday 4th September with satellite events on the Monday and Friday, and the main conference starting on Tuesday 5th September .

Recordings of talks, panels, and walkthroughs, and a full photo gallery from the conference, will be available shortly.

You can still see the detailed programme by clicking the button below.

Available ticket types and costs were:

• In-person ticket: £330
• In-person ticket for Members of the Society of Research Software Engineering: £297
• Remote ticket: £100
• Remote ticket for Members of the Society of Research Software Engineering: £90

Remote attendees had access to live streams of all plenaries, and all parallel talks, panels and walkthroughs, with access to the same online Q&A platform as in-person attendees for all these sessions. All conference posters were accessible online, with a remote Q&A facility, and some community workshops and satellite events also had remote options. For more detail on the remote attendee experience, see the conference accessibility information .

Funding opportunity: Support the development of research software engineering

Apply for funding for activities to support the development of research software engineering in the UK.

You must be either:

• a researcher or research software engineer (RSE) at an eligible research organisation
• an employee of an eligible public sector research establishment.

You can be from any area of the UK research community. You do not need to be working within EPSRC’s remit.

There are two funding streams to apply for. The full economic cost of your project can be up to:

• £500,000 (including indexation) for the Core Knowledge Integration programme
• £170,000 (including indexation) for awards to develop training and skills activities for RSE knowledge integration.

We will fund 80% of the full economic cost.

Who can apply

You can apply if you are a researcher or RSE equivalent at:

• a higher education institution
• a research institute
• an independent research organisation accredited by UKRI
• an eligible public sector research establishment.

Check if your institution is eligible for research and innovation funding.

Holders of postdoctoral level fellowships are not eligible to apply for an EPSRC grant.

Applicants across the UK research landscape are invited to apply to this opportunity. We are particularly keen to attract applicants from a diverse set of institutions and backgrounds.

Submissions to this opportunity will count towards the EPSRC repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy.

What we're looking for

This funding opportunity is designed to:

• design and provide a long-term strategy for the training and development of the existing RSE community with HPC and exascale skills required to develop, support and maintain software and algorithms required for high performance computing and exascale development to facilitate high-quality science
• develop a training curriculum for the RSE community with respect to their continued professional development
• design and deliver activities to grow the established RSE community to attract new entrants
• design and deliver activities to enable greater collaboration and transfer of skills in both directions between academic and industrial research sectors
• design a sustainable long-term career path for RSEs.

This opportunity will build upon the information and recommendations provided in the RSE Knowledge Integration Landscape Review . This is written by members of the ExCALIBUR design and development working groups and details the current RSE landscape and the skills required to meet the challenges of the growing demand for HPC and exascale expertise.

There are two streams of funding available:

• a single award to fund one proposal to deliver the full breadth of activities detailed above
• multiple smaller awards to create and deliver individual specific training opportunities, hackathons, workshops, bootcamps and so on.

The focus of this opportunity is to support the development and growth in the UK RSE community to meet the future demand for HPC and exascale skills as we approach the exascale era.

Engagement and collaboration with currently funded projects and consideration of how to engage with those yet to be funded by the ExCALIBUR programme is a requirement for proposals.

Read further details on the ExCALIBUR programme.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate how they would collaborate with both researchers and businesses or industry.

Funding can be requested for:

• the design and delivery of a focused training programme aimed at RSEs to address the future training requirements (both HPC and exascale) of the existing RSE community and to attract new entrants to the role
• individual training activities to meet the identified HPC and exascale skills gaps as detailed in the RSE Knowledge Integration Landscape Review (a variety of different training models may be proposed, including postgraduate study, workshops, hackathons and bootcamps)
• the development of a strategy for the long-term career development of RSEs.

EPSRC reserves the right to reject proposals that do not sufficiently demonstrate the contribution of the proposed activities to enable research within UKRI’s remit.

ExCALIBUR knowledge exchange coordinators

Knowledge exchange (KE) is a vital component in achieving the objectives of the ExCALIBUR programme. It will ensure integration across the programme activities where researchers are developing software and algorithms in preparation for future Exascale systems. Additionally, connections are required with potential beneficiaries in academia, public sector research establishments (PSREs) and industry to contribute to these designs and the dissemination of outcomes.

Only applicants to the Core Knowledge Integration Programme need to identify in their proposal a co-investigator or researcher co-investigator who will have responsibility for ExCALIBUR KE, to ensure interaction with the ExCALIBUR knowledge exchange coordinators already in post working across the ExCALIBUR programme.

The ExCALIBUR knowledge exchange coordinator’s role is to:

• identify opportunities for knowledge exchange within their project, with other ExCALIBUR programme projects and with other relevant national and international projects
• identify opportunities for knowledge exchange to develop and maintain a two-way flow of engagement and dissemination with industry and relevant national and international research communities
• collaborate with other ExCALIBUR knowledge exchange coordinators as a network to deliver the programme’s knowledge dissemination strategy.

Funding available

One award of up to £500,000 (including indexation) is available to fund a core knowledge integration programme for a duration of up to three years at 80% full economic cost. Costs may include:

• researcher time
• consumables.

Up to £170,000 (including indexation) is available for up to four awards for a duration of up to three years at 80% full economic cost. Costs may include:

Equipment over £10,000 in value (including VAT) is not available through this opportunity. Smaller items of equipment (individually under £10,000) should be in the ‘directly incurred other costs’ heading.

For more information on equipment funding, please see EPSRC’s equipment page.

International collaborators

Applicants planning to include international collaborators on their proposal should visit Trusted Research for guidance on how to get the most out of international collaboration whilst protecting intellectual property, sensitive research and personal information.

How to apply

You should ensure you are aware of and comply with any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place. You should prepare and submit your proposal using the research councils’ Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.

When adding a new proposal, you should go to documents, select ‘new document’, then select:

• ‘create new document’
• council: EPSRC
• document type: standard proposal
• scheme: standard
• ‘SPF ExCALIBUR RSE Knowledge Integration Phase Two’ on the project details page.

After completing the application, you must ‘submit document’ which will send your application to your host organisation’s administration.

Your host organisation’s administration is required to complete the submission process. You should allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the call closing date

EPSRC must receive your application by 16:00 on 2 December 2021.

As well as the Je-S application form, the following documents must be submitted:

• case for support: eight pages (two on your track record and six on the scientific case)
• workplan: one page
• justification of resources: two pages
• CVs: up to two A4 sides each, only for named postdoctoral staff, researcher co-investigators (research assistants who have made a substantial contribution to the proposal and will be employed on the project for a significant amount of time), and visiting researchers
• letters of support from all project partners included in the Je-S form: no page limit
• cover letter: optional attachment, no page limit, not seen by peer review.

You should attach your documents as PDFs to avoid errors. They should be completed in single-spaced Arial 11 font or similar-sized sans serif typeface.

Advice on writing proposals for EPSRC funding.

Ethical information

EPSRC will not fund a project if it believes that there are ethical concerns that have been overlooked or not appropriately accounted for. All relevant parts of the ‘ethical information’ section must be completed.

Guidance on completing ethical information on the Je-S form.

EPSRC guidance can be found under ‘additional information’.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process.

This opportunity will go through a one-stage assessment process. There will be no postal peer review stage for proposals submitted to this call. An expert prioritisation panel will assess all proposals submitted to this call.

The expert panel is expected to comprise a multidisciplinary membership of academics, industrial representatives and international expertise.

Applicants will be provided with comments from the expert panel providing them with a right to reply. The right to reply will be included in the panel documentation.

The key dates for applicants’ right to reply are:

• request for principal investigator response: 26 January 2022
• principal investigator response deadline: 3 February 2022.

Proposals will then be assessed at an expert prioritisation panel meeting resulting in a rank ordered list.

In the event of this opportunity being substantially oversubscribed as to be unmanageable, EPSRC reserve the right to modify the assessment process.

Assessment criteria

The standard criteria below will primarily be addressed by the expert prioritisation panel, whilst opportunity criteria will be assessed at the expert interview panel. Further guidance will be provided to applicants invited to interview.

Standard criteria

Quality (primary) the quality of the research excellence enabled, making reference to:

• the novelty, relationship to the ExCALIBUR programme, timeliness and relevance to identified stakeholders
• the originality, relevance, and effectiveness of the training approach to address the training needs identified and to support RSEs and the wider research community to accelerate research impact
• the contribution of RSE knowledge integration to the delivery of the ExCALIBUR programme’s ‘investing in people’ pillar
• the suitability of the proposed methods and the appropriateness of the approach to achieving impact.

National importance (secondary major), how the proposed activities:

• contribute to the skills development and growth of the UK’s software development community (both in HPC and exascale), including active engagement with the ExCALIBUR programme
• address a clear and timely need within the relevant research communities that builds upon the current ExCALIBUR funded approaches and has potential to leverage complementary ExCALIBUR projects
• complement other ExCALIBUR research funding and fit the overall programme aims and objectives, including evidence of current and proposed future collaborative work.

Applicant and partnerships (secondary), the ability to deliver the proposed project, making reference to:

• appropriateness of the track record of the applicant or applicants
• balance of skills of the project team, including collaborators.

Resources and management (secondary), the effectiveness of the proposed planning and management and whether the requested resources are appropriate and have been fully justified, making reference to:

• any equipment requested, or the viability of the arrangements described to access equipment needed for this project, and particularly on any university or third-party contribution
• any resources requested for activities to either increase impact, for public engagement or to support responsible innovation
• evidence that the requested resources and approach to management are appropriate with respect to the activities of the proposed work.

Opportunity specific criteria

Fit to opportunity:

• alignment of the programme to the aims and objectives of the opportunity
• the Core Knowledge Integration Programme: a coherent programme of activities covering all aims and objectives of the opportunity.

Feedback from the panel will be provided (in addition to Grants on the Web).

Guidance for reviewers

EPSRC peer review process and guidance for reviewers.

Guidance for reviewing EPSRC standard grants.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Ask a question about this opportunity

For any further specific opportunity information please contact:

Sarah King: [email protected]

Elizabeth Bent: [email protected]

Research infrastructure inbox: [email protected]

Get help with Je-S

Any queries regarding the submission of proposals through Je-S should be directed to the Je-S helpdesk.

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 01793 444164

Opening times: Je-S opening times

Additional info

This funding opportunity is designed to deliver on the ‘Investing in People’ pillar of the ExCALIBUR programme.

RSEs are integral members of research teams who work alongside researchers co-designing scalable, robust, verifiable and maintainable software to deliver research impact. RSEs work across almost all the UKRI research base from cosmology to digital archiving.

At present a subset of RSEs work in the domain of high performance computing (HPC). With the imminent arrival of the next generation of supercomputers the demand for RSEs with the expertise to meet the challenges of new programming paradigms along with novel and heterogeneous architectures has never been greater. Highly skilled RSEs will be required across both academia and industry to exploit these advances.

Provision for the development of HPC skills within the RSE and research communities

It is acknowledged that many sections of the RSE community do not currently work on software in the HPC domain. However, with the anticipated growth in demand for skills in HPC and beyond it is necessary to enable the existing RSE community to grow their expertise in this domain. The RSE Knowledge Integration Landscape Review identifies a set of skills required for RSEs working in the HPC domain which include:

• core skills
• programming skills
• debugging, performance profiling and optimisation
• software career skills
• artificial intelligence and machine learning
• application and data workflows.

Provision for the development of exascale skills within the RSE and research communities

The RSE Knowledge Integration Landscape Review highlighted the following areas where skills development was required within the RSE and wider research community:

• parallel paradigm
• data and application workflows and their optimisation
• HPC and artificial intelligence benchmarking of systems, codes and models
• heterogeneous architecture programming
• containerisation.

Long term career path development

To ensure the UK research community can effectively exploit the potential of exascale computing, recognition is required of the valuable contribution software engineering focused staff make to research outcomes. A strategy is therefore required to develop a long term career path for these individuals within both national laboratories and institutions.

The ExCALIBUR programme

ExCALIBUR (Harnessing Exascale Computing Algorithms and Infrastructures Benefitting UK Research) is a £45.7 million Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) programme led by the Met Office and UK Research and Innovation to meet this challenge by delivering research and innovative algorithmic development to harness the power of exascale HPC.

Radical changes to supercomputer architectures are on the horizon. The current simulation codes, that much of UK science relies on, are designed for current supercomputer architectures. These codes will, at best, not be able to fully exploit the power that the supercomputers of the mid-2020s will deliver; at worst, they will run slower on those machines than they do now.

Future computers will be more energy efficient and so the longer we rely on the current approach, the more expensive the solution will be. Therefore, it is essential that we invest now in redesigning those simulation codes so that they perform well on the future generations of supercomputers.

ExCALIBUR will be delivered over five years and will meet this challenge by delivering research and innovative algorithmic development to redesign the high-priority simulation codes to fully harness the power of future supercomputers across scientific and engineering applications.

It will achieve this by bringing together an unprecedented range of UK domain experts, mathematicians and computational scientists who will identify common issues and opportunities in the high-priority simulation codes and focus their combined scientific expertise and resources to accelerate toward interdisciplinary solutions.

The programme objectives have been designed to specifically address the benefits sought, which are:

• efficiency: the UK’s most important scientific simulation codes will be able to harness the power of the supercomputers of the mid-2020s, resulting in an increase in scientific productivity for a given investment
• capability: capitalising on this efficiency will enable the UK to continue to push the boundaries of science across a wide range of fields delivering transformational change in capability
• expertise: a new, forward-facing, interdisciplinary approach to RSE career development will position the next generation of UK software engineers at the cutting-edge of scientific supercomputing.

ExCALIBUR is built around four pillars:

• separation of concerns
• data science
• investing in people.

These pillars describe the fundamental principles that guide the development of research within the ExCALIBUR programme and are designed to ensure that the outcomes are future proofed against the constantly evolving landscape of hardware design. It will be delivered through six main activities:

• the redesign of a core set of simulation codes (use cases) chosen to span a wide range of science domains
• knowledge integration across the programme through widely applicable cross-cutting themes
• application of learning from these activities to a second wave of use cases
• exploratory research to identify and develop emerging high-performance algorithms in areas with significant potential impact
• an interdisciplinary research software engineer knowledge integration activity
• an annual capital investment to support the development of novel test beds to enable co-development with industry.

Cross-cutting research

The ExCALIBUR programme defines cross-cutting research as: a coordinated approach addressing a known technology or infrastructure issue, which, if resolved, will lead to significant progress across a range of exascale software development challenges.

The themes of the cross-cutting research opportunity were defined following a market engagement event jointly held by the Met Office and EPSRC in November 2020. These themes were included within the two calls subsequently run and themes were categorised as common approaches and solutions or potential disruptors.

Common approaches or solutions:

• input, output and storage
• data workflow
• verification, validation and uncertainty quantification
• domain specific languages.

Potential disruptors:

• exposing parallelism: parallel-in-time
• exposing parallelism: task parallelism
• machine learning: optimising numerical methods and augmenting physically based applications
• future computing paradigms.

The grants funded through these calls will utilise the lessons learnt from the use cases and design and development working groups to address common issues that impact scientific code under development for use at Exascale.

Responsible innovation

EPSRC is fully committed to develop and promote responsible innovation. Research has the ability to not only produce understanding, knowledge and value, but also unintended consequences, questions, ethical dilemmas and, at times, unexpected social transformations.

We recognise that we have a duty of care to promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor and to encourage our research community to do likewise. Therefore applicants are expected to work within the EPSRC framework for responsible innovation.

Supporting documents

• equality impact assessment (EIA) (PDF, 223KB)
• RSE Knowledge Integration Landscape review (PDF, 796KB)

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