Research software is a central component of research practice

Welcome to the first post in our six-part series exploring the future of research software in Germany. In each installment, we present opinion statements on why a national research software institution could and should be created to strengthen Germany’s research ecosystem.

Research software is now an indispensable part of scientific work, and its importance will only increase. Modern research is simply no longer feasible without high-quality software of all types and categories.

Various studies have shown that better software leads to better research: research processes become more effective, impactful and reproducible - and in many cases are made possible in the first place. These effects are evident across the entire spectrum of scientific disciplines, e.g. from biology to physics and the social sciences, to energy research.

The significance of research software can be gauged by a number of indicators, including the importance of well-trained personnel in the field of research software development and the number of topic-specific research software funding opportunities, as well as the documented funding requirements. The growing awareness of the importance of research software is also reflected in the extensive software holdings of the Software Heritage Archive, which reached over 20 billion unique source files in 2025. Moreover, the economic impact of open source software has been measured quantitatively, for example on the European economy, thereby demonstrating its impact far beyond the scientific domain. Nevertheless, quantifying the value of specific software in research contexts remains a particular challenge.

The development of specialised research software is an essential component of contemporary research methodologies and the relevance of research software is especially apparent in concrete instances of success: often, the value and reliability of scientific work can only be assured through adherence to specific quality criteria of the underlying software. Advancements in the field, exemplified by a seminal paper authored by more than 5,000 researchers, have yielded a novel estimate of the Higgs boson’s size: The ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN employed sophisticated data modelling and management software, underscoring the technological sophistication required for such endeavours. Another example is one of the most cited papers of all time: the short history of SHELX, a software suite for the determination of crystal structures. Furthermore, the generation of visualisations and the interpretation of archaeological features of Maya ruins was only possible by the use of several research software. Thus, in almost all disciplines, the following applies: without software, there is no data, and vice versa.

The establishment of a national research software institution could raise awareness among scientific institutions and advocate to science policymakers, ensuring that research software receives the recognition, support and continuous development that reflects its fundamental role in scientific practice, thereby establishing it as a first-class research output in its own right.