Access to research software: Opportunities and challenges

Welcome by Jerry Sheehan, Director, Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD

As research software becomes an essential output of scientific work, ensuring equitable and sustainable access requires well-defined governance frameworks.

How can policy ensure that research software is made accessible and shared (e.g. via open source, commercial models)? How should the roles and responsibilities be assigned among public, academic, and private stakeholders? What are good practices for monitoring and evaluating effective access to research software, and the policies that facilitate it?

The discussion aims to surface best practices and policy gaps in supporting access, accountability, software sustainability and long-term oversight.

Moderator: Daniel S. Katz, Chief Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Panel:

• Roberto di Cosmo, Software Heritage
• Ioana Spanache, Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding, Romania
• Dr Nonia Pariente Penamaria, Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Biology
• Fabio Kon, USP (Brazil)

Fragmentation and limited interoperability continue to hinder the full potential of research software in supporting open science. In this context, sustainability refers specifically to software sustainability, including its long-term maintenance, accessibility, and reuse.

What are the challenges and opportunities in developing federated, sustainable infrastructures for software sharing, execution, and preservation? What policy frameworks can support interoperability and coordination of research software across platforms, and how can policy instruments help ensure the sustainability of the software itself? What are some good practices supported by policy for maintaining long-term repositories? What are scalable models for software archiving, maintenance and reuse, and how can these be embedded in national or institutional policy strategies? What are sustainable modes of financing for such infrastructures in the short, medium and long term?

Participants will discuss sustainable infrastructure strategies and underlying business models.

Moderators:

• Carole Goble, University of Manchester and ELIXIR
• Morane Gruenpeter, Direcor of scholarly ecosystem engagement and operations, Software Heritage

Panel:

• Caterina Doglioni, University of Manchester, RI Escape, EVERSE
• Nick Jenkins, Australian Research Data Commons
• Bregt Saenen, Science Europe
• Ikki Fujiwara, Associate  Professor, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo

The development and maintenance of high-quality research software depend on skilled professionals who are appropriately incentivised and recognised for making the software accessible.

What are policy best practices and exemplars to support research software professionals?  What types of training and capacity building initiatives are most effective, and how can policy support their wider adoption? What policy changes are needed to ensure that research software engineers have adequate career paths in academic setting How can policy strengthen implementation of recognition and credit for  researchers who are developing, maintaining, and providing access to software?

Participants will discuss strategies to build capacity, reform incentive structures, and foster inclusive and sustainable research software communities.

Moderator: Michelle Barker, Director, Research Software Alliance

Panel:

• Sandra Gesing, Executive Director, US Research Software Engineers Association
• Paul Richards, UKRI 
• Alex Seuthe, Research program manager, Klaus Tschira Stiftung
• Anelda van der Walt, Director & Digital Research Enabling Consultant, Talarify

With increasing emphasis on transparency and reproducibility, clear standards and quality assurance mechanisms for research software are critical.

What role does policy have on the adoption of standards and processes for research software? How can FAIR4RS (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable for Research Software) be made a reality? What are the areas that require assessment or certification practices / frameworks, what are the current practices, and how will they evolve in the near future? Is FAIR4RS sufficient to support these goals, or are additional principles and tools needed? How can this be harmonised across institutions and countries?

Participants will consider how standards can support both technical quality and responsible research practices, and the role of policy in enabling their adoption.

Moderators:
Florian Mannseicher, Project Coordinator, Society for Research Software in Germany (de-RSE)
Neil Chue Hong, University of Edinburgh and Software Sustainability Institute

Panel:

• Fotis Psomopoulos, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Coordinator of EVERSE
• Shelley Stall, Senior Director for the American Geophysical Union's Data Leadership Program
• Prof. Susanna Assunta Sansone, Academic Lead for Research Practice, University of Oxford
• Malin Sandström, Senior Research Officer, Swedish Research Council

The advancement of research software infrastructure requires collaboration across public and private sectors. This session will explore the role of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in co-financing and co-developing key infrastructures.

How can the private sector be productively involved for the purpose of making research software available to the research community?
How can intellectual property rights be governed?
How can single-vendor lock-in be avoided?
Beyond simple procurement, are there other forms of public-private partnership which can be envisaged?
What are the criteria for providing open source vs. proprietary software?

This session will examine models for effective public–private partnerships that leverage the complementary strengths of academia, industry, and government. Participants will discuss funding mechanisms, co-development initiatives, strategies to uphold open principles in commercial and hybrid environments. The goal is to identify scalable, sustainable approaches to shared investment and innovation in research software ecosystem.

Moderator: Alan Paic, OECD

Panel:

• Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
• Prof. Jan Bjaalie, Professor and Pro-Dean for Research and Innovation - Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, EBRAINS
• Lennart Stoy, Technopolis, Belgium
• Tania Allard, PhD Director, Quansight Labs