The success of RSE community has brought with it an interesting problem: we’re running short of people to lead the RSE groups that are being set up around the country. On the 1-2 May, in collaboration with the Software Sustainability Institute, we ran a workshop to help train and mentor the next generation of Research Software Engineers.

Thirty aspiring leaders made it through the application process and met with the 11 established leaders who ran the workshop. In the application form, the attendees were asked what areas of leading an RSE they needed help with and the most frequently cited topics were used to construct the agenda. Over the two day workshop attendees listened to presentations and joined group discussions on leadership, hiring, justifying the existence of a group and community building.

Materials from the workshop are available on Google Drive.

The workshop was very well received: every attendee wanted the workshop run as a regular event to help build the RSE community. “It was a great opportunity to meet RSE leaders from across the country and to learn from their experiences. I learned a lot that I have already applied to the development of our own team.” said Mike Simpson, an aspiring leader from the University of Newcastle.