Welcome to the June edition of the RSE Society Newsletter. We’ve got some updates from the Society and our working groups, and lots of community updates to get through, so let’s dive in!

Society News Updates

First, a few updates from the Society on the Conference and this year’s Trustee Elections.

RSECon26

The Trustees and the RSECon26 organising committee have been closely monitoring the situation and evaluating our options in light of the ongoing dispute between the University and College Union (UCU) and the University of Sheffield, where RSECon26 is currently planned to be held in September. We have been working hard behind the scenes to try to determine how best to proceed. Thank you to everyone who took part in our community consultation. This will be a difficult decision, and we hope to make an announcement as soon as possible.

Reviewing a Record Number of Submissions for RSECon26

Do you want to take a look behind the scenes of RSECon26? Were you surprised that your submission wasn’t accepted, despite very positive feedback from reviewers? In this blog post, Jost Migenda (RSECon26 Talks Chair) gives a step-by-step explanation of the selection process, including some statistics showing how incredibly tough it was to select from a record number of extremely high-quality submissions.

Awards

It is time to celebrate the amazing contributions to the Research Software Engineering community! You can nominate colleagues, groups or yourself for a Community Award or the Green RSE Award.

• Nominations close on 13 July 2026.

We are also looking for volunteers to help review these nominations. Reviewers of all experience levels are welcome and the total time commitment is a maximum of 3 hours. Applications to be a reviewer close on 12 July 2026.

Trustee Elections 2026

Nominations for the Society Trustee elections are now open! The Society is calling on members of the RSE Community to step forward and help us shape the future of the Society and the RSE movement. If you are interested in joining us, please check out the blog post and consider nominating yourself. A Slack channel and Q&A sessions with existing trustees will be announced soon!

• More information and nomination instructions in this blog post.
• Nominations are open until 23:59 (BST) on Sunday 6th July 2026.

Special Interest and Regional Group Round-up

Just a few updates from the Leaders and Policy & Funding Groups this month.

Join the Policy & Funding Working Group

The Society has recently launched a working group focused on advocating for policy and funding to support RSEs across the UK. The group is now looking to expand its membership and bring on RSEs with a range of experiences and perspectives to inform its work. If you are interested in helping to shape a better research environment for RSEs – whether or not you have previous experience with policy – please consider applying!

If you have any questions or want to know more about what the group is working on, you can reach out to the current members [email protected].

Report from RSE Leaders & Aspiring Leaders Meeting

The biannual RSE Leaders & Aspiring Leaders Meeting took place on Monday 15 June at the University of Durham. Hosted jointly by Durham University Advanced Research Computing, SocRSE’s Policy & Funding Working Group, and the RSE Leaders Network SIG, the event brought together members of the community to think about policy and advocacy for RSEs.

The event featured a keynote from Dr Ian Hancox, Director of Research Technology and Technical Strategy at the               University of Warwick and Co-Director for the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy. This event also marked the first step in the recently-launched Policy & Funding Working Group’s wider community consultation process to shape that group’s first output, an update to the Society’s strategy for policy and funding that responds to changes in the RSE landscape.

• Read the full blog post to learn more about it.

 The next RSE leaders meeting will take place as a satellite event at RSECon in Sheffield on Tuesday 8 September. This event will focus on developing future leaders, and both established and aspiring leaders are encouraged to attend. Register today!

If you are interested in hosting the 2027 RSE Leaders & Aspiring Leaders meeting, please get in touch with the SIG             coordinators.

Community News & Events

Finally, we’ve got lots of exciting updates from all across the research software community.

Survey: How do RSEs contribute to the teaching of digital technical competencies?

Carlos Cámara-Menoyo and his colleagues are conducting a survey to understand the role people, methodologies and infrastructure play in the provision of digital research competencies across higher‑education institutions. Learn more and participate via the link below.

• Survey Link

DASH/IHDEA 2026 – Registration and abstract submission now open!

Abstracts are now being accepted for DASH/IHDEA 2026, with submissions due by 29 July 2026 11.59 pm (Europe/Dublin timezone). Meeting registration is open until 4 September 2026. DASH/IHDEA 2026 will take place October 5–9, 2026, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS).

The Data, Analysis, and Software in Heliophysics (DASH) workshop brings together software developers, data practitioners, and scientists to present and discuss algorithms, software, analysis methods, data systems, and standards used throughout heliophysics. DASH especially aims to connect practitioners and promote collaboration across the international heliophysics software community. The co-located International Heliophysics Data Environment Alliance (IHDEA) meeting encourages the use of common standards and services to enable data sharing, improve interoperability, and enhance science.

All ranges of experience are welcome. The program will include invited and contributed presentations, poster sessions, community discussions, and opportunities for collaboration. See the website for session topics. General submissions are also welcome.

• More information on the event webpage.

AI Container survey for the NFCS Network+

Do you have opinions about containers and AI? About what a useful registry service or services might look like. How one should be run or who should run it? Then we’re all ears 👂👂

The National Federated Compute Services – NetworkPlus is consulting the community on the shape of the UK DRI that would be needed for a federated service. Prize draw for participation!

• Survey Link

Workshop on AI Container Registries

The 4th workshop of the NFCS AI Container Registry project will be held on July, 21st 2026 in Cambridge, UK, at the University of Cambridge’s West Hub.

The theme of this workshop is building a successful federated container registry for AI applications running on HPC systems, focusing on the federation aspects: actors (users, resource providers, software managers), governance and implementation. We will be presenting the findings of our feasibility study (user survey and reports) and hearing from distinguished speakers on the topics described above.

Fortran index hackathon

Fortran Index (https://fortran-index.github.io) is a virtual hackathon series focused on improving knowledge exchange in Fortran. It primarily targets improvements to the package index on the Fortran-lang webpage (https://fortran-lang.org/). Come along to help improve this valuable community resource. No knowledge of Fortran or web development required!

New program from The Carpentries: GenAI in Workshops

In response to the growing number of reports we are receiving from our Instructor community about the use of generative AI chatbots by learners at workshops, The Carpentries has launched a bonus module to Instructor Training, GenAI in Workshops, in which instructors will explore what widespread genAI use means for the way they teach.

In sessions led by expert Instructor Trainers, participants will discuss the potential impacts of genAI chatbot use on opportunities for guided practice in a workshop, how expertise affects an individual’s ability to make successful use of genAI tools, how considerations of cognitive load should change in this new context, and how to maintain a positive learning environment in their workshops.

• Learn more in the announcement post on The Carpentries blog.

Call for Abstracts: RSE-HPC-2026 Workshop at SC26

We are excited to announce the Research Software Engineers in HPC (RSE-HPC-2026) workshop, to be held as part of SC26, in Chicago, IL, USA and online, on Monday, November 16, 2026.

We encourage prospective participants to submit abstracts of proposed lightning talks on topics related to RSE issues. The authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to present lightning talks or participate in panel discussions at the workshop. We particularly encourage submissions from first-time conference presenters, and from members of groups that have historically been underrepresented in the HPC community. The deadline for submissions is Friday, August 7, 2026, at 11:59 PM AoE (UTC-12).

• For more information, see the workshop website.

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.

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