The Research Software Policy (RSP) Forum is a collaboration of policymakers committed to supporting research software, and those who develop it, as fundamental and vital to research. Policy makers include representatives of organisations focused on research, open science, and open source software, that influence policy at the national, regional, and/or international level.

Software has become an essential constituent of research and research software is starting to be seen as an equal partner of research data in key international policy documents such as UNESCO and the OECD. However, support and recognition of the importance of research software and the people who develop and maintain it, has failed to keep pace with the scale of use of research software in research.

The RSP Forum provides a formal mechanism for members to share practices and consider how to individually and collectively address common challenges to achieve the significant cultural change needed across the research sector globally. It aims to address topics such as:

• Best practices in policy development and implementation to support research software (within broader policies and/or through targeted policies)
• Policy alignment across national boundaries
• Case studies of how national policy makers are affecting (state) legislation for universities in their own country (where relevant) to change employment conditions for research software engineers
• Integration with broader policies for research, open science, open source software, etc.
• Opportunities provided by open source program offices (OSPOs)
• Consistent approaches to monitoring, benchmarking and measuring progress

For further information, please refer to the Terms of Reference.

Membership is open to any policymakers that focus on research, open science, and open source software, and influence policy at the national, regional, and/or international level.

Examples of/types:

• International and national government policy units (e.g., OECD, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST))
• Regional initiatives focused on research software with a policy element (e.g., EVERSE)
• Funding and/or research organisation consortia (e.g., Science Europe, LA Referencia)

Members can suggest other organisations that support research software policy to join, or potential participants can contact ReSA for information on joining.