1st Forum Research Software

Background

On May 6, 2021, the Task Group Research Software, the HIFIS platform and the Helmholtz Open Science Office jointly held a workshop on the topic of “Policies for Research Software”, which is becoming increasingly relevant in research practice. The virtual event with over 100 participants showed the great interest of all Helmholtz centers in the topic. The target group (primarily policy makers and team leaders in software development, e.g. from data centers, infrastructure, science management, libraries, law and technology transfer or scientific software communities) was fully represented.

After a welcoming address by Wolfgang Marquardt and the keynote speeches, a productive dialog was initiated in four Zoom breakout sessions in order to collaboratively develop a checklist for the development and introduction of a policy in the centers in the future. The results were documented on virtual whiteboards and form the basis for a further exchange process that takes into account previous preliminary work by the Task Group Research Software of the Open Science Working Group (in particular the recommendations for the implementation of guidelines and directives for dealing with research software and the model guideline on sustainable research software) and within the individual centers.

All Helmholtz stakeholders are welcome to actively participate in the collaborative development of a checklist for the development and introduction of a policy in the centers - the Research Software Forum is looking forward to a continued productive exchange!

Program

Time	Agenda	Speaker
10:00–10:15	Welcome and introduction of the forum	Uwe Konrad (HIFIS), Wolfgang zu Castell (AK Open Science), Roland Bertelmann (Helmholtz Open Science Office)
10:15–10:20	Greeting	Wolfgang Marquardt (FZJ)
10:20–10:35	Research software in the context of good scientific practice, Open Science and the Helmholtz digitization strategy	Bernadette Fritzsch (AWI)
10:35–11:05	Keynote speeches (15 minutes each):
	Development of a policy on research software at the GFZ	Martin Hammitzsch (GFZ)
	Working with research software at DLR	Tobias Schlauch (DLR)
11:05–11:15	Break
11:15 - 12:20	“Hands on”: Development of a checklist for the development and introduction of a software policy Interactive format in Miro with moderated breakout sessions on four topics Independent assignment until 11:20 and change after 30 minutes if required
12:20–12:45	Summary, next steps and conclusion