What is the International RSE Survey?
Research software engineers (RSEs) are people who use software expertise to support research. They design, build, maintain, and improve the software that makes research possible, although their formal job titles vary widely.
The Institute for Research Software (previously the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)) began the survey in 2016 to better understand this community: who RSEs are, where they work, how they develop software, and what they experience in their careers. The first survey focused on the United Kingdom. In 2017, separate surveys extended the work to Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United States. From 2018 onward, a single international survey replaced the separate national surveys, with further editions in 2022 and 2026.
The resulting evidence helps RSE communities, research institutions, and funders understand working practices and identify ways to improve recognition, career development, and working conditions. This publication presents the responses for Germany.
Original survey resources
Explore the survey through the SSI’s original interactive dashboard or access the anonymised, openly licensed data and question metadata.
Explore the RSE community in Germany over time
Discover how people who develop software for research in Germany work, learn, collaborate, and build their careers. Choose a survey year to begin.
2017Germany surveyExplore this year 2018Germany surveyExplore this year 2022Germany surveyExplore this year 2026Germany surveyExplore this year
How to read this publication
Selected country scope
Every result is filtered to the selected country-of-work scope: Germany.
Each year stands alone
Questions and answer options can change between surveys, so results are not automatically harmonised across years.
Clear response counts
Only submitted responses are included.
Reusable by design
The same generators can focus an equivalent publication on another country or a selected group of countries.
Survey credit
We gratefully acknowledge the Institute for Research Software (previously the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)) International Survey Committee for creating and coordinating the International RSE Survey. See References and acknowledgements for the full contributor and citation information.
Publication credit
The Germany-focused survey books and website were developed at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) within the federated FutuRSI project, based on the Nordic-focused analysis software. See References and acknowledgements for full credits, citations, and provenance.
