We have just launched this website, with the aim of collecting together people at Kent who are interested in joining our ‘community of practice’ to be supported in developing software for research. The best way to join is to sign-up to our mailing list to hear about events in 2023 and onwards.

So what is Research Software Kent all about?

Software is increasingly central to many research activities. In some areas it is essential for research, e.g., for data analysis or building complex models of the physical world. Research software is not just constrained to STEM; increasingly those in social sciences and humanities are writing code to further their research too (see e.g., Digital Humanities). However, most academics writing software for their research (either as an intrinsic part of it, or as a tool) are not trained software engineers. UKRI has recognised the strategic value of research software and the need for their to be increased support for training and establishing good software practices across disciplines. This in part lead to the establishment of the Software Sustainability Institute about 10 years ago to support the role of software in UK research. Their slogan captures the situation well: Better Software, Better Research.

Several UK universities have taken things further and established central teams of Research Software Engineers who work as contractors on local research projects, and can be costed into grants. Examples include UCL, Sheffield, Cambridge, Bristol, Bath, Manchester, Durham. The concept of a Research Software Engineer (or RSE) has now been recognised by UKRI as a valid role to cost on grants, and there is an established Society of RSEs in the UK which is rapidly growing and supporting those in academia who are not traditional researchers but instead RSEs. However, many other researchers (at all stages) undertake primarily research roles but with software development as a significant part of their research outputs, activities, and infrastructure.

So what about Kent? We surely have a large number of academics writing software as a key part of their research, not just in the School of Computing (where I am based), but throughout the University, in many disciplines, with many styles. Given that software is becoming a critical part of research and a way of achieving greater research success, how do we as an institute support that? The Research Software Kent community is a first grass-roots step in helping to support academics engaged in research software engineering at Kent. In this first instance, the plan is to hold regular seminars during term time in which key skills can be taught, providing a starting point for researchers to up-skill, including topics such as:

  • How to collaboratively develop code, using e.g., tools like GitHub.
  • How to curate code and data so that it can be published in an open access form.
  • How to test software for the absence of bugs.
  • How to produce software whose results are repeatable and reproducible, and what does that mean in your field.
  • How to make your software findable and citable by others.

The aim is to share best practices, spread knowledge, and learn from each other. I am involved in providing training on similar topics in my role as Co-director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science and there are those in School of Computing with training and experience in these areas who can lend a hand.

In the future, we also hope to hold “code clinics” and pairing and review sessions to give hands on support to those developing software but having some problems.

So, if you write software in support of your research at Kent, please join our network and come along to the talks so we can work together to maximise the value of our software in our research.

Better software. Better research.

Dr Dominic Orchard, School of Computing