Abstract
Introduction to Research Software Engineers
The term Research Software Engineer (RSE) was coined during a software sustainability workshop at the University of Oxford in 2012, but the role it describes existed long before that moment.
For decades, as the potential of software to accelerate research continued to expand across numerous disciplines, a growing community of intellectually curious and obliging software engineers have been utilising their skills to create research software that is effective, efficient, and reproducible.
During that time they have enabled outputs for which there existed no formal means of receiving credit, nor opportunities for career advancement, and their erstwhile invisibility to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) may have prevented potentially important research projects from securing funding.
The creation of a title for this emerging class of research professionals, and a vigorous global campaign to secure recognition, has done much to help software engineers and researchers achieve their collective potential. There is recognition across the research landscape that RSEs are essential to the operation of effective research, reflected in the fact that UKRI recently awarded £10.2 million to the Software Sustainability Institute – a leading organisation in the RSE movement – through its Digital Research programme (UKRI, 2024). This award was consistent with previous pronouncements by UKRI:
If the UK is to meet the ambition of remaining at the forefront of computational and data-intensive science, the career development of research software engineers and research data professionals is critical. (UKRI infrastructure opportunity report, 2023)
Arguments for greater RSE recognition and capacity have appeared in places as influential as Nature and the UK Government’s 2017 Industrial Strategy.
Nonetheless, there continue to be misconceptions and missed opportunities in the field, arising from a widespread presumption that software is a tool reserved for scientists and programmers.