Dear Robert,

  I run a company called The Research Software Company. We focus solely on academic researchers. We are based in Israel, so almost all our clients are Israelis. We have a relatively broad vision of software development  in Israeli universities, in several research fields.

  What we mostly see is people working more or less in isolation, with no corroboration between research teams. While each team develops its own software, there is a lot of room for sharing code and practices. Most teams indeed avoid using any source repositories, and rely on other methods for backups (a Google Drive folder, the University provided backup, a USB disk or no backup at all).

  Most teams have non-programmers, or graduate students that took one or two programming classes. These students mostly program in R or MATLAB, with Python being third. Some teams have students with a more serious programming background. They develop larger software systems, sometimes in C++, sometimes in Java and sometimes in Python (a minority uses other languages as well). The more experienced programmers avoid R and MATLAB.

  Some groups develop their own web-based database systems. In Archaeology of all fields, people like using File Maker for this. While not being open-source and free, it is a very good choice for non-programmers looking to build a simple database and frontend.

  It is quite obvious that at least here, programmers in the academy need to be better educated. It can save a lot of time.

  Itay.
  

From: Research Data Management discussion list <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Robert Darby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Research Data Management discussion list <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Tuesday, 16 May 2017 at 10:07
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Research software support at institutions - needs and requirements

Dear colleagues

I have been exploring the idea of helping to establish and sustain a local network of researchers and research students writing code and developing their own research software, to facilitate sharing of support, knowledge and expertise, organise meetings and workshops, etc. (I think as a University we’re a long way yet from employing dedicated Research Software Engineers.)

I’ve some reports of support need and some researchers I have spoken to are interested in the idea of a local group/network. But I know researchers will draw on existing offline and online software support at point of need, and may be less inclined to commit time to a group without a clear pay-off. Would a local research software users’ group meet a real demand, and be sustainable? How do we make it deliver value to those who would benefit, and prevent any initial interest fizzling out?

If anyone has sought to develop a local group along these lines, I’d be interested to hear about their experiences – challenges, successes, failures…

I was thinking of putting out a survey of our researchers to gather evidence of need and appetite, but would want to make sure I ask the right questions (I’m no programmer myself), e.g. which disciplines have most need, where discipline-specific knowledge/skills are requisite, what programming languages are in most use/most need support, how a group could be useful, etc. Has anybody else undertaken a survey along these lines? I’d be very interested if anyone has materials they would be willing to share.

Thank you

Robert

Dr Robert Darby | Research Data Manager | Research and Enterprise | University of Reading | Whiteknights House 201 | PO Box 217 | Reading RG6 6AH
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