🌍 Advancing research software through global collaboration: Highlights from #IRSC26 👉 blog.esciencecenter.nl/posts/2026-1...

A blog by Michelle Barker (Better scientific software) and Kim Hartley (@researchsoftware.bsky.social).

#mustread #researchsoftware

🌍 Research software is essential to research, but sustaining it requires global coordination.

Our blog explores how #IRSC26 brought together leaders and decision-makers to address shared challenges and shape the future of #ResearchSoftware in the age of GenAI.

🔗 www.researchsoft.org/blog/2026-10/

Almost recovered from an amazing week in Sheffield, attending the inaugural International Research Software Conference, celebrating 10 years of the RSE Conference, representing @society-rse.org and
@softwaresaved.bsky.social, and talking about Mental Health & The ConveRSE Project. #IRSC26 #RSECon26

Keynotes from the first International Research Software Conference (#IRSC26) are now available:

- What We Talk About When We Talk About RSE by @rivaquiroga.bsky.social
- What Public Code Can Teach Us: Research Software Meets Software Research by Stefano Zacchiroli

▶️ youtube.com/playlist?lis...

You can see the full talk on Zenodo👉 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

And I'm going to (very slowly!) work on writing up some of these findings into prose soon.

#IRSC26

All in all, there's a lot still to dig into in these datasets and the insights coming out of this (and other #IRSC26 talks) really generate more questions for me, namely...

💡Another notable result: people who maintained projects rated contributor training as less effective than those who weren't already maintainers.

Is this because maintainers are more skeptical given their experience, or because they see a burden for themselves, or some other reason?
#IRSC26

Surprise: when we asked people about the perceived effectiveness of different contributions, maintainer funding (money) and institutional policies (might support time) came out on top

#IRSC26

Barriers largely focused on skills, confidence, a lack of recognition, and the challenges around learning project dynamics and ways of working

(Honourable mention for Git which was listed multiple times specifically as a barrier!)

#IRSC26

Why do they do this? Motivation ranges from personal values around contributing to the research commons, a drive to develop professional skills, through to needing to fix a bug or add a feature to tools people are using in their work

#IRSC26

Highlights from today:
Plenty of academics, even those who don't consider themselves contributors, contribute to open source on a regular basis

#IRSC26

Lovely to share a snapshot of my @softwaresaved.bsky.social fellowship work at #IRSC26 today exploring open source contributions and culture in academia through a 130 person survey (already OSS-engaged) and an #RSECon25 workshop (mostly RSEs/adjacent)