mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06The Software Sustainability Institute is the first organisation in the world that was dedicated to improving software in research. We help people build better and more sustainable software to enable world-class research.
🎯 In January 2026, #SSIFellow @codemonkey_mike@mastodon.social attended the first DisCouRSE network focus group, which aimed to explore different ideas and practices around leadership and team culture for Digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs). Find out more about it at https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/discourse-focus-group-team-culture-and-leadership-drtp-contexts
🎓 The Building Better Research Software workshop, which will take place from Tuesday 5 May to Friday 8 May, aims to teach tools and practices for producing and sharing quality, sustainable and FAIR research software to support open and reproducible research. Find out more and register at
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/building-better-research-software-workshop
🔎 The Teaching and Training Special Interest Group within the @ResearchSoftEng@mastodon.social is calling dRTP group or team leads to contribute to the dRTP Training Landscape Survey 2026. Find out more and fill in the survey by Tuesday 31 March: https://www.software.ac.uk/news/shaping-future-drtp-training-join-2026-landscape-survey
🌊 The team behind the Digital Research Competencies (DIRECT) Framework has announced the release of version 2.0.0, marking the third anniversary of the DIRECT project. Look out for their session later today at #CollabW26.
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/new-version-direct-framework-released-support-digital-research-skills-and-career-development
🌊 Join us in Hall2a for today's welcome and the keynote by Eleanor Broadway. And do not forget to use the #CollabW26 hashtag to share your impressions of Collaborations Workshop.
🌊 Welcome to Day 1 of Collaborations Workshop 2026!
A thank you to our Gold Sponsors Society of Research Software Engineering, DataKind, and NI-HPC for their generous support.
Come by the registration desk from 9.00am and pick up your lanyard and booklet or access the digital version to keep up with all there is to know about #CollabW26: https://www.software.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2026-04/CW26.booklet.pdf
🔴 We are happy to announce that the SSI has received funding for a fourth phase which will last from 2024 to 2028 and focus on environmental sustainability, EDIA in the research software community, and the rising interest in AI and ML.
Phase 4 of the SSI received funding through the UKRI Research and Innovation Digital Research Infrastructure Programme and will be led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Read the full announcement at https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/record-ps102m-investment-continue-improving-research-software-practices
🌊 We are delighted to announce the final Gold Sponsor for #CollabW26, NI-HPC, a UK Tier-2 National HPC facility funded by EPSRC and jointly managed by Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University. Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/ni-hpc-announced-gold-sponsor-cw26
🌊 We are delighted to announce that our second #CollabW26 gold sponsor is DataKind, a global nonprofit that builds and deploys AI and data science solutions for public benefit organisations. Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/datakind-announced-gold-sponsor-cw26
🟨 The Reasonable Performance Computing Special Interest Group (SIG-RPC) was founded in September 2024, following feedback to a talk delivered by #SSIFellow Robert Chisholm at RSECon24. Read more about it in our latest blog post: https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/15-months-reasonable-performance-computing-sig
🧭 Submissions for two of the CHARTED flexible funds are now open. CHARTED aims to make the training landscape easier to navigate for both new and experienced digital Research Technical Professionals. This is being achieved by funding a range of initiatives including community-driven activities and personal development opportunities.
Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/call-submissions-charted-flexible-funds
🔎 A reminder that the dRTP Training Landscape Survey 2026 will close next Tuesday, 31 March.
The Teaching and Training Special Interest Group within the Society of Research Software Engineering is calling dRTP group or team leads to contribute to the survey by sharing insights on their current training activities, barriers to development, and interests in cross-institutional partnerships.
Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/shaping-future-drtp-training-join-2026-landscape-survey
We are pleased to announce the Digital Humanities & Research Software Engineering Summer School 2026, taking place at the University of Manchester from Monday 29 June to Thursday 2 July 2026. Attendance is free, and limited bursaries of up to £650 are available by application to support those who need financial assistance to attend.
Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/dh-rse-summer-school-2026-registration-now-open
🌊 We are delighted to announce the full list of lightning talks that will be delivered at Collaborations Workshop 2026. Find out more at
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/cw26-find-out-more-about-years-lightning-talks
And if you haven't registered yet, hurry up an secure your #CollabW26 spot now!
🧭The deadline to apply for the SSI Fellowship Programme is Monday, 7 October. There are only two weeks to go, so if you haven't applied yet, hurry up and submit your application. We can't wait to get to know all our potential fellows!
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/ssi-fellowship-programme-2025-apply-monday-7-october
Ahead of the 2026 survey, we have developed an interactive dashboard showcasing the data from previous RSE surveys. If you analyse the data and find out something interesting, we’d love to hear about it and there could be a prize in it for you!
🌊 We are happy to share that the Collaborations Workshop Mini-workshops have now been announced! Read the full list at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/cw26-mini-workshops-have-now-been-announced
For those that have not registered yet, hurry up and secure your spot at #CollabW26 at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collaborations-workshop-2026-cw26-collabw26-tickets-1590550201469?aff=oddtdtcreator
🌊 The deadline to purchase General Admission (in-person) tickets for Collaborations Workshop 2026 is 11:59pm on 31 March. Hurry up an secure your spot now!
#CollabW26 will take place as a hybrid event from Tuesday 28 April to Thursday 30 April 2026 at ICC Belfast.
Find out more about the event and what is included in remote and in-person tickets at
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/last-chance-purchase-your-tickets-collaborations-workshop-2026
⌨️ The Intermediate Research Software Development Course will take place on 13 - 16 April 2026 at the University of Manchester and will be delivered by EPCC (Chris Wood and Evgenij Belikov) with the help from SSI and Manchester RIT. Find out more at
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/intermediate-research-software-development-course
🔍️ We asked for help and you responded! Over the last decade, SSI and our international partners have gathered heaps of data on the research software community. We shared this dataset and are now pleased to announce the three finalists from our RSE Data Competition. Voting is open from Wednesday 15 April to Wednesday 6 May. Everyone is invited to participate, but please only vote once. Find the finalists here:
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/voting-open-rse-data-competition
🗺️ The Software Sustainability Institute and Lingnan University, Hong Kong, are proud to jointly feature a webinar on AI world models. The event will take place online on Friday 17 April between 9 and 10.30 BST. Find out more at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/ai-imaginary-and-world-models-seeing-making-worlds
🐦⬛ In our latest blog pt #SSIFellow @ultrazool@mastodon.scot tells us more about a workshop held at KWMC for people interested in finding out how to use technology to detect and identify nature. Read the full story at
https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/kwmc-listening-nature-workshop
🌊 Final phase tickets for Collaborations Workshop 2026 will be available until 12 noon on Wednesday 8 April. If you have not done so already, hurry up and secure your spot at #CollabW26:
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/sale-ends-person-cw26-tickets-8-april-2026
🧑💻 In our latest blog post #SSIFellow and @ersiliaio@fosstodon.org co-founder Gemma Turon discusses her experience organising the 1st Latin American hands-on workshop on open source AI/ML guided drug discovery. Read the full article at https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/open-source-aiml-guided-drug-discovery-workshop-translating-learnings-africa-latam
🐍 #SSIFellow @jyoti_bhogal@mastodon.social attended PyCon UK 2025 in Manchester and reported on her experience in our latest blog post. Read more about the event at https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/pycon-uk-2025-through-my-eyes-creativity-collaboration-and-community
📗 Find out more about Green continuous integration and continuous development practices in our latest blog post by Joe Wallwork, Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS): https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/green-continuous-integration-and-continuous-development-practices
🌊 Day 1 of Collaborations Workshop 2026 has drawn to a close. We hope you had constructive discussions and are ready for another full day tomorrow. And for those joining us at the Gala Dinner, the drinks reception will start at the Lagan Suite, Hilton Belfast, at 18:30.
🌊 Join us in Hall 2a for the Welcome to Collaborations Workshop 2026 and do not forget to use the hashtag #CollabW26 to share your experience throughout the day!
🌊 Collaborations Workshop starts tomorrow!
To get the momentum going, dive into this guest blog post featuring our #CollabW26 Gold Sponsor, DataKind: https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/keeping-rapidly-expanding-research-blending-human-expertise-and-ai-tools-systematic-reviews
🟢 Registration for the International Research Software Conference (IRSC) is now open via Eventbrite! IRSC will take place on 7 and 8 September 2026, co-locating with RSEcon26 in Sheffield, UK. Find out more about it at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/registration-now-open-international-research-software-conference
🟥 A total of 229 Expression of Interest were received for Round 2 of the Research Software Maintenance Fund. Of these 61 were invited to submit a full application, due by Wednesday 20 May 2026, 16:00 BST. Read the full news item at https://www.software.ac.uk/news/research-software-maintenance-fund-expressions-interest-outcomes-and-next-steps-0
🔵 The next EIDF Town Hall meeting will take place Tuesday, 5 May, from 09:30 - 11:40 at the Bayes Centre, University of Edinburgh, or remotely. The event is dedicated to showcasing how the Edinburgh International Data Facility's private research cloud infrastructure can support R&D activities. Find out more about it and how to register at
https://www.software.ac.uk/news/eidf-town-hall-meeting
