Research Software & AI
Artificial intelligence is changing how research software is developed, used, maintained, and evaluated. Generative AI is adding new urgency: as producing code and other research outputs becomes easier, questions of trust, verification, provenance, maintenance, and long-term stewardship become even more important.
ReSA is working with the international research software community to facilitate coordination regarding these changes, connect related initiatives, and support practical approaches to the opportunities and challenges GenAI presents for research software.
Building on discussions from the 2026 Research Software Engineering in the Age of Generative AI: Building a Community Vision workshop, ReSA is continuing to explore key questions around research software and AI through webinars, community activities, and collaborations with the wider research software community.
Details of upcoming webinars will be announced soon.
In March 2026, ReSA and Schmidt Sciences convened the Research Software Engineering in the Age of Generative AI: Building a Community Vision workshop in Edinburgh, UK, bringing together members of the international research software community to consider how research software will be produced in the age of generative AI – independent of today’s specific roles or job titles.
Participants identified opportunities and risks associated with AI-assisted research software development and proposed more than 50 potential activities to advance safe, reproducible, and effective use of GenAI in research software and research workflows.
In 2024, ReSA and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada published the position paper Research Software is Critical to the Future of AI-Driven Research.
The paper highlights the critical role of research software in AI-driven research and calls for research software to be recognised as a fundamental component of the digital research infrastructure needed to support responsible, sustainable, and reproducible AI-enabled research.