January 2025 Newsletter
Welcome to the Society’s newsletter for January 2025, where we wish you a (very late) Happy New Year and bring you some exciting updates from the Society and the RSE Community.
Headlines
Applications are Open for the SocRSE Mentoring Scheme!
The SocRSE Mentoring Scheme is now open for applications — deadline: 14th February 2025.
This free program* connects Society members in the RSE community, supporting personal growth and career development. For mentors it is an opportunity to share experience, guide early-career RSEs, and hone leadership skills. Mentees can benefit from support, fresh perspectives, and guidance on navigating their career path. *Our only requirement is that you have to be a paid member of the Society for RSE
For more details, visit our website or send an email to: [email protected] with questions — we’re happy to help!
RSECon24 Proceedings
The proceedings from the eighth annual conference for Research Software Engineering are now available: RSECon24: Research software engineering conference.
- YouTube videos: watch talks, panels and workshops
- Zenodo Community: access slides and other resources shared during the event
- Google photos: browse the official event photos and relive the moments
RSECon25 website launch and call for satellite events
RSECon25 will be hosted at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK from 9-11 September 2025.
Check out the website and call for satellite events here
Community News & Events
This month, we have updates from a number of communities that you may want to get involved with.
Green RSE SIG Launches with an Online Community Session!
January marked the successful launch of the Green RSE special interest group (SIG) through an online meeting featuring a variety of talks, lightning presentations, and discussions.
Martin Jukes introduced the NetDRIVE (Network for Sustainable Digital Research Infrastructure Vision and Expertise) project, which commenced this month. Community talks covered topics such as AI, task scheduling, training, and sustainability initiatives at STFC.
Breakout sessions explored the SIG’s priorities over the next 3, 6, and 12 months, focusing on four key areas: Governance, Responsibility, Estimation & Energy Use, and Education & Training.
In the coming weeks, the Green RSE SIG will analyse the breakout session outcomes to map out its next steps. Stay tuned for updates!
We are pleased to announce the creation of the Teaching and Training Special Interest Group.
This group has the aim of developing RSE teaching practice and learning materials to support teaching researchers and RSEs. For more information please see the announcement webpage Teaching and Training SIG – Society of Research Software Engineering.
To register to join the SIG please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/6hTBr2LQAFZcwBFV6
Help Us Elevate the Role of Research Software in Academia
Research software is at the heart of modern academia, powering the data generation, analysis, and insights that drive groundbreaking discoveries. Yet, its contributions often go unrecognised in research evaluations that influence funding decisions and career progression.
At the University of Southampton, we are working on a project to better track and acknowledge the impact of research software. Our goal is to develop new approaches that ensure research software receives the credit it deserves.
We’re inviting researchers, PhD students, research software developers, and contributors to share their perspectives through a short survey. The survey takes just 10 minutes to complete, and your input will help shape future policies and assessment frameworks like the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
https://southampton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0oJgRYV3UltrZeS
Call for Submissions – WHPC Cambridge & East Anglia, and RSEEE Kick-off event
Greetings one and all. The folks at WHPC (Women in HPC) Cambridge & East Anglia, and RSE East of England, are preparing to host their first event as a joint venture, bringing together old friends and new to celebrate and enthuse about our work.
The theme for this event is ‘Show up & Show off’.
We will have a mix of stand-up talks and group sessions to hear people talk about what projects they are excited about in the world of HPC and/or research software. Is there a research project that’s grabbed your attention, maybe a piece of software or code that you think is making waves? Perhaps you’ve been bringing people together in your own community and would like to share how it went.
Whatever it may be, we’d love to invite you to Cambridge for an afternoon of sharing and an evening of networking. And even if you don’t wish to talk, we’d love for you to come and listen, learn, and liaise (because who doesn’t love a bit of alliteration 🙂)
https://forms.gle/Zg5S8DhBi7GQuQR89
Society Updates
Special Interest Groups
We have five new Special Interest Groups being run by our community members, and supported by the Society.
- Reasonable Performance Computing SIG
- HPC RSE SIG
- Green RSE
- See announcement in community updates above
- Read about the group and how to join on their webpage
- Teaching and Training
- See announcement in community updates above
- Read about the group and how to join on their webpage
- Geoscience (under construction)
Events and Initiatives Fund
The Society has funding to provide support for events and initiatives which support our mission statement and charitable objectives?
- Learn more or apply via the Events and Initiatives Grant page.
Membership
Not yet a member? Why not join us today? Read about all the benefits of being a member on our website. 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.
Zenodo
Zenodo is a popular publishing platform, and our community has two Zenodo groups.
- The Community Account is for RSEs in the community to share publications about RSE: https://zenodo.org/communities/rse/
- The Society Account is for Society publications, such as our annual report: https://zenodo.org/communities/socrse/
Podcasts
Code for Thought is back and now in its eighth season, with episodes now in English, German and French. It is available on all major podcast directories, including YouTube.
Follow Us
A reminder that we have two relatively new social media accounts:
- Mastodon @[email protected]
- Bluesky @society-rse.org.
You can always find all our sites and social media links on our Linktree page.
And remember, if you have any news or announcements you would like us to include in the newsletter, please let us know using this form.
