October 2026 Newsletter
October is traditionally the month where our new trustees get settled in and all trustees adjust to new roles and responsibilities. It’s also a chance for the Society to catch it’s breath after RSECon! A few updates this month from both the Society and the community but remember if there is anything RSE related (especially from your team) that you’d like to tell people about, please submit it for consideration!
Society News Updates
Meet the Trustees 2026/27
It’s been a few weeks since the results of our 2026 trustee elections were announced at the AGM at RSECon26 in Sheffield. Now that the new trustees are settling into their roles, we wanted to introduce ourselves and say a huge thank you to our colleagues who stood down.
RSECon Videos: the community behind the code
We have just uploaded two short new videos to the Society YouTube channel – “Why attend RSECon” and “10 Years of RSECon”. Both were filmed at our recent RSECon26 in Sheffield.
The next time colleagues ask you about attending RSECon or someone asks about becoming a member, please share these videos. Thank you to Peter Schmidt for conducting the interviews and to everyone who took the time to take part in the filming!
Do You Remember Your First RSECon?
The new Year In Industry students from the RSE team at the University of Manchester recently attended RSECon26. What did they make of their first academic conference?
Call for Volunteers!
Did you know that the Communications team at the Society is a Working Group which means that it is open to non-trustees?
We are looking for Society members to help with a range of activities including our monthly newsletter, approving submitted content, reporting back from relevant events, and “comms champions” to help amplify our communications.
Importantly next year is “15 years of RSE” and we would like to invite the community to get involved with some special activities that we are planning! The group meets for an hour every month so if you would like to get involved, drop us an email!
Community News & Events
DisCouRSE launches free leadership programme for dRTPs
DisCouRSE is offering 32 fully funded places across two complementary leadership development programmes for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs), taking place in the first half of 2027.
Whether you are already leading people, services or communities, or preparing to take your first leadership step, these programmes will provide an opportunity to develop practical leadership skills, apply learning to real workplace challenges, and build a supportive peer network. Applications are open now and close at midnight on 8 November 2026.
Share Your Work at CoSeC Conference 2026
The CoSeC Conference 2026 takes place in Manchester on 2 December, as part of Computing Insight UK (CIUK). Bringing together the wider computational science and research software community, the conference is an opportunity to share your work and connect with people across different disciplines.
If you have research, software, tools or methods you’d like to showcase, poster abstract submissions are open until 15 November. Accepted poster presenters receive free registration for the full CIUK event. Not presenting? You’re very welcome to attend too.
Paid Opportunity at ScholarTHON: Organising Knowledge
ScholarTHON: Organising Knowledge, a two-day research event at Cardiff University on 2 and 3 December 2026, is looking for two Research Software Engineers, ideally based in Wales.
ScholarTHON adapts the hackathon for arts and humanities research: researchers, heritage professionals and embedded RSEs work in small groups on how knowledge can be organised, connected and sustained. Each RSE joins one group for two days, helping it turn a research question into a realistic way of organising its data, from metadata and ontologies to Python, OpenRefine and Linked Open Data; nobody needs to cover everything! The commitment is 10 hours for the event plus 10 follow-up hours and co-authorship for the RSE of the winning group. If you are interested contact Giovanna Di Martino.
Society Updates
And finally, our regular reminder that we have a number of events, initiatives and resources that you might want to check out. These are linked below.
| Special Interest Groups | We have eight Special Interest Groups being run by our community members, and supported by the Society. Check out our SIGs page to get involved (or start your own!). |
| Events and Initiatives Fund | The Society has Events and Initiatives funding to provide support for events and initiatives which support our mission statement and charitable objectives. |
| Membership | Not yet a member? Why not join us today? We welcome anyone who supports our mission, whether or not they are employed as RSEs. |
| Jobs | A reminder that if you are looking for RSE-related jobs, you can join the #jobs channel on the RSE Slack workspace or visit our vacancies page. Also check out the Work Experience and Internships Section if you are looking for opportunities. |
| Zenodo | We have a Community Zenodo Account for RSEs in the community to share publications about RSE. |
| Podcasts | Peter is continuing to release excellent episodes of the Code for Thought podcast in English, German and French. It is available on all major podcast directories, including YouTube. |
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And remember, if you have any news or announcements you would like us to include in a future newsletter, please let us know using this form.
