SI2-S2I2 Conceptualization: Conceptualizing a US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI)

由于软件的使用，许多科学进步成为可能。这种软件，也被称为“研究软件”，已经成为科学和工程进步的必要条件。开发软件的科学家在他们的学科中是专家，但是对使软件开发更容易、软件更健壮、可靠、可维护和可持续的实践没有足够的理解。该项目将与这些科学家合作，了解研究界如何最好地合作，以更低的努力设计和维护更好的软件，以便他们和其他人可以长期继续使用它。这个项目将进行几次研讨会和一次调查，以收集和了解社区的需求和其成员的软件专业知识。这些需要将通过通讯和网站广泛传播。该项目的主要交付成果将是美国研究软件可持续性研究所（URSSI）的设计和战略计划，该研究所将作为社区中心，为科学家提供服务，帮助他们创建改进的、更可持续的软件。这个软件反过来将加速科学的进步，从而服务于NSF的使命。现代研究不可避免地是数字化的，数据和出版物通常以电子方式创建、分析和存储，使用软件表示的工具和方法。这种“研究软件”对科学、工程和所有其他领域的进步至关重要，但它并没有以一种有效或可持续的方式发展。开发该软件的研究人员，虽然精通他们的学科，但通常没有足够的培训和理解简化开发和可维护性以及鼓励可持续性和可再现性的最佳实践。作为回应，该项目正在构想一个美国研究软件可持续性研究所，该研究所将验证并解决至少三类问题（个人和团队的功能、研究软件和研究领域本身），影响所有NSF的所有软件开发和维护项目。URSSI概念化包括研讨会和广泛分布的调查，这些调查涉及到重要的涉众社区，以了解他们生产和使用的软件，以及他们考虑维护它的方式，遵循其他成功的软件机构所走过的道路。沟通是这个项目的关键组成部分，通讯、网站、调查结果和社会媒体被用来提供广泛的传播和参与。研讨会、调查和社区管理方法允许概念化项目迭代地构建在现有的、对可持续软件及其开发人员的挑战的广泛理解的基础上。该项目还讨论了URSSI如何使学生进入大学，学习和贡献软件，然后毕业到全职职位，利用他们的软件技能，增加那些进入研究软件开发的多样性，并在他们的大学生涯中保持多样性的管道正规化，多样化和改进。概念化团队通过思考、研究、生活科学软件，积累了数百人年的综合经验；这将与来自更广泛社区的反馈相结合。它利用现有的协作来扩展社区和项目对其需求的了解，以规划最好的URSSI。研究结果将创建一个热心的支持性社区，一个具体的研究所计划，以提供有价值的服务，以及一份公布的调查和数据，表明社区的需求。

Many science advances have been possible thanks to use of software. This software, also known as "research software", has become essential to progress in science and engineering. The scientists who develop the software are experts in their discipline, but do not have sufficient understanding of the practices that make software development easier, and the software more robust, reliable, maintainable and sustainable. This project will work with these scientists to understand how the research community can best work together to design and maintain better software with lower effort, so that they and others can continue to use it over long periods of time. This project will conduct several workshops and a survey in order to gather and understand the community's needs and the software expertise of its members. These needs will be widely disseminated via newsletters and via a website. The primary deliverable of this project will be a design and strategic plan for a US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI) which will serve as a community hub and provide services to scientists that will help them create improved, more sustainable software. This software in turn will accelerate the progress of science, thus serving NSF's mission.Modern research is inescapably digital, with data and publications most often created, analyzed, and stored electronically, using tools and methods expressed in software. This "research software" is essential to progress in science, engineering, and all other fields, but it is not developed in an efficient or sustainable way. The researchers who develop this software, while well-versed in their discipline, generally do not have sufficient training and understanding of best practices that ease development and maintainability and that encourage sustainability and reproducibility. In response, this project is conceptualizing a US Research Software Sustainability Institute that will validate and address at least three classes of concerns (functioning of the individual and team, the research software, and the research field itself), impacting all software development and maintenance projects across all of NSF. URSSI conceptualization includes workshops and a widely-distributed survey that engages important stakeholder communities to learn about the software they produce and use, and the ways they contemplate sustaining it, following the paths blazed by other successful software institutes. Communication is a key component of this project, with newsletters, a web site, survey outputs, and social media used to provide broad dissemination and engagement. The workshops, survey, and community management approach allow the conceptualization project to iteratively build on existing, extensive understanding of the challenges for sustainable software and its developers. The project also addresses how URSSI could formalize, diversify, and improve the pipeline under which students enter universities, learn about and contribute to software, then graduate to full-time positions where they make use of their software skills, to increase the diversity of those entering research software development and to retain diversity over their university careers. The conceptualization team has accumulated hundreds of person-years of combined experience by thinking, researching, and living scientific software; this will be combined with feedback from the broader community. It leverages existing collaborations to expand both the community and the project's knowledge of its needs, to plan the best possible URSSI. The results will create an eager supportive community, a concrete institute plan configured to offer valued services, and a published survey and data that demonstrates community need.