Software literacy has become a key competence for scientists across all disciplines. Scientists use software everyday, and software development is becoming an increasingly important component of scientific productivity. However, the software needed for certain research projects can get highly complex and take up resources otherwise needed for core research. In the demanded professionalization of software development in research, specialized Research Software Engineers have emerged in recent years. With their help, researchers tackle the challenges in the areas of software and data, such as reproducibility, correctness, user-friendliness, performance, or maintenance.
Our two-day workshop provides new opportunities to learn about best practices in scientific software development, like:
- Seeing recent flagship projects in action.
- Discussing software licensing and intellectual property issues.
- Discovering new ways to make your software known and recognized.
We invite all interested scientists, research software engineers, IT and computing specialists and individuals involved in creating, using or otherwise dealing with research software in the Max Planck Society. We also welcome participants from other research institutions.
Timeline and Location
February 28 – Deadline for contributions
March 7 – Registration opens (at most 60 persons in presence)
April 25 – Registration for in-person presence closes
May 12 – Afternoon, main focus: research software applications
May 13 – Morning, main focus: research software engineering
The workshop will be held in hybrid form, so you will be able to connect remotely or come to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön.
CoViD19 regulations
The organization committee observes and acts based on the current and changing CoVID19 regulations defined by the regional and federal authorities. At the time of writing, this means that 2G regulations apply: in-person participants must be vaccinated against or have recently recovered from a SARS-CoV2 infection. We recommend having a Coronavirus self-test immediately before travelling or in the morning of the first day. Last-minute changes in these regulations are possible may (in the worst case) lead to late cancellation of the event.
Themes and types of contribution
We are looking for prime examples where software enabled research (day 1) and working practises in research software engineering (day 2).
Who should submit?
We welcome submissions from any people who have an interesting take on research software development, especially:
- Researchers at any career stage who develop software for research purposes
- Software developers working in a research context, whatever their job title or field, maybe
- Those interested in advancing the understanding of how best to use and maintain research software, e.g. concerning openness, reproducibility, sustainability, scalability, or performance
- Organizations providing tools, platforms, or services that foster research software, such as IT infrastructure providers or computing and data centres.
Technicalities
The workshop’s goal is to establish community relations and learn from each other. There will be records of the sessions.
Formats
This workshop will only feature talks.
Talks may have a length of 15-30 mins. + variable time for Q&A and discussion. If your talk is accepted, you will be notified about the talk length by the session chair.
Organisation Team
- Holger Dinkel (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics)
- Conrad Droste (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
- Carsten Fortmann-Grote (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology)
- Michael Franke (Max Planck Digital Library)
- Maximilian Funk (General Headquarter of the Max Planck Society)
- Yves Vincent Grossmann (Max Planck Digital Library)
- Stephan Janosch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics)
- Sven Willner (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology)
Contact
You can reach the organisers via email to research-software-workshop [at] lists [dot] mpg [dot] de.