Access to Research Software: Reflections from OECD-Workshop in Paris

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has signaled an important shift in their recognition of and approach to research software, recognizing it as an essential research output right up there with text publications and data.

Jerry Sheehan, the Director for Science, Technology, and Innovation at the OECD, pointed out that the OECD’s new initiative — an internal working group that will develop recommendations on access to research software — represents a key step in recognizing that software has distinct characteristics that differentiate it from text publications and data. This distinction represents new territory for the OECD’s approach and seems significant for researchers and academics, as it may bring more resources and potential funding sources.

On 8 September, FutuRSI participated at the “Access to research software: Opportunities and challenges” workshop at the OECD headquarters in Paris. This one-day event explored the opportunities and challenges surrounding access to research software, bringing together a group of international experts from organisations such as the Research Software Alliance, Science Europe, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the EVERSE project and Software Heritage, both in person and virtually.

The discussions reinforced several key points. Firstly, research software must be recognised as a legitimate research output. However, sustainability remains elusive: academics are concerned about long-term funding, while industry focuses on technical maintainability. The reality is that open source software requires dedicated resources for maintenance and updates.

The most interesting notion was that ‘it takes a village’ — or rather, interconnected villages. According to the workshop participants, overcoming these challenges requires collaboration between funders, publishers, institutions, researchers and industry partners, transcending borders and disciplines.

As FutuRSI looks ahead to more focus on research software in Germany, we hope that the OECD’s exploration will also provide frameworks that can help accompanying the cultural change to better appreciate the importance of research software and those who develop it and help shaping Germany’s future research software ecosystem.