Research Software Support Fundamentals for DCC-PO

Netherlands eScience Center

February 3rd and 19th, 2025

9:30 - 17:00 CET

Instructors: Jaro Camphuijsen, Sander van Rijn, Dani Bodor, Lourens Veen

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General Information

The eScience Center offers a range of workshops and training courses, aimed at PhD candidates and other researchers or research software engineers. We organize workshops covering digital skills needed to put reproducible research into practice. These include online collaboration, reproducible code and good programming practices. We also offer more advanced workshops such as GPU Programming, Parallel Programming, Image Processing and Deep Learning.

Research software is a topic of growing interest for many researchers. This workshop is tailored for support staff who are already familiar with Research Data Management and the FAIR principles but would like to learn more about how to manage software better and help researchers manage their research software/code.

The workshop will cover the following key aspects:

How is software being developed? What is research software and how much do I need to know?
What are Software Management Plans (SMPs) and how can researchers benefit from them? How can I help researchers to fill in SMPs?
What initiatives exist in the academic landscape that relate to software, and what do I need to know to support researchers?
What software licenses exist, why are they important and how do I help researchers pick the right one?
Why is software publication and citation important? How should software be published and cited?
Why is it important to adopt good software development practices and how should I advise researchers on these best practices?

The workshop will cover hands-on exercises and many opportunities to ask questions that are relevant to you, your experience, and your field.

The workshop is split over two separate days with homework exercises in between.

Who:

This workshop is aimed at research support staff, that want to learn about research software and be able to better support researchers who write code in their research.

For example (but not exclusively): University Library staff, Digital Competence Center staff, Data Stewards, Research Software Engineers, etc.

Recommended prior knowledge:

Basic understanding of the research cycle and academic landscape (if you are not familiar, read the following: research lifecycle )
Basic understanding of the FAIR principles for data management (if you are not familiar, read the following: howtofair.dk/what-is-fair)

Where: Science Park 402, 1098 XH Amsterdam. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: February 3rd and 19th, 2025, 9:30 - 17:00 CET.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a webbrowser and some way to take and store notes (preferably digital).

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:

The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
Accessible restrooms are available.

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Workshop files: You will find all slides, notebooks, archived collaborative documents, and other relevant files in the files folder of the workshop website repository after the workshop.

Contact: Please email or training@esciencecenter.nl for more information.

Code of Conduct

Participants are expected to follow these guidelines:

Use welcoming and inclusive language
Be respectful of different viewpoints and experiences
Gracefully accept constructive criticism
Focus on what is best for the community
Show courtesy and respect towards other community members

Syllabus

Research Software and its position in the academic landscape
Initiatives regarding software, like FAIR software, (Free and ) Open Source Software, RSE community, etc.
Software Management Plans
Good Practices in Software Development
Software Licensing
Software Publication
Software Citation

Schedule

The workshop consists of two separate in-person days with time in between for homework exercises

Day 1

local Amsterdam time	what
9:30	Welcome and icebreaker
10:00	Research Software
11:00	Break
11:15	Software in the Research Landscape
12:15	Lunch
13:15	Landscape exercise
14:15	Break
14:30	Software Management Plans
15:30	Break
15:45	Introduce homework exercises
16:15	Wrap-up
16:30	End & Drinks

Day 2

local Amsterdam time	what
09:30	Welcome and recap
09:45	Reflect on homework
10:00	Version Control and Software Testing
11:00	Break
11:15	Software Documentation
12:00	Lunch Break
13:00	Distributing Software
13:30	Break
13:45	Software Licenses
14:45	Break
15:00	Software Publication and Citation
15:45	Break
16:00	Revisit homework
16:15	Wrap-up
16:30	End & Drinks

All times in the schedule are in the CET timezone.

Setup

For this workshop you need a laptop and access to the internet. There are no setup instructions.