7–8 September 2026 | Sheffield, UK & online, co-located with RSECon26

Registration is now open for IRSC26. Join a global gathering of leaders and change-makers working to advance global shifts toward strategic coordination, long-term sustainability, and high-level collaboration across the research software community in the age of generative AI.

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About IRSC

Research software is increasingly recognised as critical to research outcomes. Yet research software, and the people who develop and maintain it, operate with tremendously unstable resources and funding. This instability negatively impacts innovation by slowing research and creating unstable career pathways.

There is an urgent need for international cooperation that supports research software to solidify next-generation research and innovation, particularly in navigating the AI transition.

This new event recognises that the international research software community is moving towards aligning global policies and funding, responsibly integrating AI, sustaining essential infrastructure, recognizing and equipping its diverse workforce, improving how software impact is measured, and ensuring interoperability through open, standards-based infrastructure.

This event aims to support the evolution of this shift in a rapidly changing technological landscape toward strategic coordination, long-term sustainability, and collaboration across boundaries.

The conference will foster:

• Global cohesion: Highlight cross-border, cross-sector, and cross-discipline collaboration to build new bridges across the global research software landscape, and to respond to AI opportunities and challenges
• Community connection: Showcase stakeholder stories, collaboration highlights, and best practices to connect with peers and unite efforts
• Strategic impact: Influence funding, policy, and research priorities; and showcase leadership within the research software community and broader movements (e.g. open science, FAIR, research assessment reform, open source)

Who should attend

Leaders and change-makers of organisations, initiatives, and communities committed to supporting research software, and those who develop it, as fundamental and vital to research.

This includes decision makers and key influencers from:

• National/international RSE associations
• Research-supporting infrastructures that provide services for research software as part of their mission
• Research software infrastructures (development, maintenance, sharing, connectivity)
• University consortia and research organisations
• Funders and policy makers
• Publishers
• Communities focused on open science, research assessment reform, impact measurement, training, and skills initiatives
• Open scientific software and/or open source initiatives
• Research programs on research software (metascience)
• Open source science communities
• Open science and research data communities with overlapping interest in research software (e.g., RDA, CODATA)

What to expect

The event format will combine multiple elements:

• Community-challenge driven sessions sharing best practices, led by ReSA Forums and task forces
• Invited speakers and panels
• Open call for sessions supporting mutual learning (e.g., workshops, case studies) — selected based on clear criteria

Goals & objectives

The event supports three levels of engagement in line with the ReSA Strategic Plan 2025–2028:

• Exchange information to increase knowledge flow in the community
• Engage collaborations to solve common issues
• Evolve governance of a global community to achieve a shared vision

Specific goals and objectives include:

• Strengthen community ties and visibility
• Engage key stakeholders to improve collaboration and coordination
• Advance strategic thinking and alignment
• Address shared challenges across contexts
• Enable exchange of best practices

Sponsorship

We gratefully acknowledge the support of our founding sponsors and partners.

Interested in becoming an IRSC sponsor? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities.

Acknowledgements

In 2024, ReSA engaged with key stakeholders in order to identify and recommend one or more community-supported routes for convening the first-ever international research software conference. This report summarises the findings of the scoping activity.

ReSA was supported to undertake the scoping for this conference as part of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant 2024-22426, Research Software Alliance: Catalyzing community-led collaborations