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Our vision: Research software and those who develop and maintain it are recognised and valued as fundamental and vital to research worldwide

Our mission

To advance the research software ecosystem by collaborating with decision makers and key influencers.

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You can become involved by:

We look forward to welcoming you!

ReSA themes

young people
People
Enhance social infrastructure for individuals and communities to improve software practices
programmer hands
Infrastructure
Identify and promote needed infrastructure
text and writing
Policy
Encourage and support software recognition

Software matters

Research software is recognised as critical to research outcomes. As early as 2014, a UK survey of 1,000 randomly chosen researchers showed that more than 90% of researchers acknowledged software as being important for their own research, and about 70% of researchers said that their research would not be possible without software. A study of Nature papers from Jan-March 2016 reveals that “32 of the 40 papers examined mention software, and the 32 papers contain 211 mentions of distinct pieces of software, for an average of 6.5 mentions per paper.” [2].

Research software is also critical in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven research, and the technological infrastructure to support AI acceleration must include research software and its personnel. Read our position paper on this vital part of AI infrastructure, which includes recommendations for stakeholders on how to consider research software in their AI goals.

90% 70% 6.5 avg
software important for own research own research not possible without software distinct software mentions per paper

Without data it’s difficult to validate results. But without code, we waste the opportunity to advance science.