The Research Software Funders Forum is a collaboration of funding organisations committed to supporting research software, and those who develop it, as fundamental and vital to research. It provides a formal mechanism for funders to share practices and consider how to address common challenges to achieve the significant cultural change needed across the research sector globally. For further information, please refer to the Terms of Reference and this ReSA blog post: Funder community focuses on crucial role of research software
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.
Funders can play a key role in changing practices in the research sector, and an increasing number of funders are now supporting the advancement of research software. Increased focus on research software can provide societal benefits that include accelerating innovation, reducing information-sharing gaps, encouraging innovation, and promoting reproducibility.
The Research Software Funders Forum aims to provide a formal mechanism to increase:
- Sharing of funding practices for research software and the people that develop and maintain it, and learning about those practices, to encourage reflection and advancement.
- Consideration of how to address key research software community challenges, both technical and social (such as diversity, equity and inclusivity) to achieve the significant cultural change needed across the research sector globally.
- Expansion of networks to increase sense of community and identification of collaboration opportunities.
- Consideration of opportunities to achieve long-term sustainability for research software, especially those that are part of key global infrastructures.
Membership is open to any initiative that funds research software. To join please contact info@researchsoft.org.
ADORE.software
The Amsterdam Declaration on Funding Research Software Sustainability (ADORE.software) represents a first step to formalise, on a global level, the basic principles and recommendations related to funding the sustainability of research software, including the people needed to achieve this goal. ADORE.software’s complementary toolkit provides examples of programs, policies, and resources for each of the Declaration’s recommendations in the four areas of research software practice, research software ecosystem, research software personnel, and research software ethics.
International Research Software Funders Workshops
Since 2022, the Funders Forum has convened annual global gatherings of research software funders.
(2022) International Funders Workshop: The Future of Research Software. The Netherlands eScience Center and ReSA co-hosted this workshop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. See the blog post and report. Prior to the workshop, the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) and ReSA co-hosted a workshop on research software visibility. Slides from the pre-workshop event are available via ReSA’s Zenodo community.
(2023) International Research Software Funders Workshop - Investing in People: Anticipating the Future of Research Software. The Digital Research Alliance of Canada and ReSA co-hosted this workshop in Montreal, Canada, and online. See the blog post and report. Prior to this workshop, ReSA delivered a half-day session on How to Explicitly Support Research Software as Part of Your Funding Program. There was also a half-day session on CiteSoftware, led by a group of stakeholders aiming to drive the adoption of a common research software preservation and citation guidance resource for the research community.
(2024) International Research Software Funders Workshop: Towards a monitoring framework to benchmark the ADORE.software recommendations and improve the sustainability of research software. The SciLifeLab Data Centre and ReSA are co-hosting this workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, and online.
Funding organisations that have engaged in the Funders Forum:
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP)
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Cancer Research UK
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)
- Department of Energy (DoE)
- Digital Research Alliance of Canada
- Dutch Research Council (NWO)
- Ecuadorian Corporation for the Development of Research and Academy (CEDIA)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- European Commission
- German Research Foundation (DFG)
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
- Medical Research Council (UKRI)
- Michael J. Fox Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
- National Science and Technology Council
- Netherlands eScience Center (NLeSC)
- New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI)
- Nordic eInfrastructure Collaboration (NeIC)
- Oracle for Research
- Sage Publishing
- São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
- Schmidt Sciences
- Science for Africa Foundation
- SciLifeLab
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
- The Navigation Fund
- UEFISCDI
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
- Volkswagen Foundation
See also ReSA’s Research Software Funding Opportunities to find funding opportunities or contribute information on new calls.
