Better Scientific Software Fellowship Program: Recognizing and Developing the Cyberinfrastructure Workforce

美国国家科学基金会（NSF）和美国能源部（DOE）支持的研究人员长期以来一直是先进计算领域的领导者，他们推动了计算和数据支持科学和工程的发展，将其作为科学和技术进步的重要推动力。然而，我们在科学软件和招聘和留住熟练的网络基础设施（CI）劳动力方面面临着越来越大的挑战和需求。解决这些挑战需要广泛的协作，以培养多样化和熟练的CI工作人员，以及实践、过程和工具，以提高开发人员的生产力和软件的可持续性——作为提高科学生产力和确保计算结果完整性的关键方面。更好的科学软件（BSSw）奖学金计划于2018年在美国能源部的支持下启动，美国国家科学基金会于2021年加入赞助——为高质量科学软件的领导者和倡导者提供认可和资助。NSF合作赞助BSSw奖学金计划的2024年队列，为开拓先进计算生态系统和社区的未来提供了更强大的方法，以支持美国的科学领导地位。这一努力符合NSF的愿景，即“一个敏捷、集成、强大、值得信赖和可持续的CI生态系统，在所有科学、工程研究和教育领域推动新思维和变革性发现”。从2023年夏季开始，BSSw奖学金计划（BSSwF）将由BSSwF管理伙伴关系管理，该伙伴关系由可持续视野研究所（提供管理劳动力发展计划的丰富经验），美国国家科学基金会的代表以及阿贡、伯克利、利弗莫尔、橡树岭和桑迪亚国家实验室的科学家组成，他们发起并领导了BSSwF。BSSw的成功以及BSSw与NSF CI学习和劳动力发展蓝图的明显协同作用为NSF继续赞助三名BSSw研究员和2024年奖学金班的三名荣誉提名奠定了基础。该项目包括创新的劳动力发展方法和方法，旨在吸引不同领域的CI专业人员，包括职业阶段、年龄、机构类型和规模以及专题专业。一个特别的重点是扩大代表性不足群体的参与，包括黑人或非裔美国人、西班牙裔/拉丁裔、美洲印第安人、阿拉斯加原住民、夏威夷原住民、太平洋岛民、妇女、残疾人和第一代学者。BSSw奖学金计划通过社区建设和培养多样化的网络，促进软件实践的发展，作为提高整体科学生产力的基本方面，并为他们的贡献提供急需的认可，从而增强CI劳动力的发展和进入NSF和DOE软件社区的途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Researchers supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE) are longstanding leaders in advanced computing, pushing the growth of computational and data-enabled science and engineering as an essential driver of scientific and technological progress. However, we face growing challenges and needs in scientific software and in recruiting and retaining a skilled cyberinfrastructure (CI) workforce. Addressing these challenges requires broad collaboration to foster a diverse and skilled CI workforce, along with practices, processes, and tools to improve developer productivity and software sustainability—as key aspects of increasing scientific productivity and ensuring the integrity of computational results. The Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Fellowship Program—launched in 2018 with support from DOE, with NSF joining sponsorship in 2021—provides recognition and funding for leaders and advocates of high-quality scientific software. NSF partnership in sponsoring the BSSw Fellowship Program's 2024 cohort enables a more robust approach toward pioneering the future of advanced computing ecosystems and communities in support of US scientific leadership. This effort aligns with NSF's vision for "an agile, integrated, robust, trustworthy, and sustainable CI ecosystem that drives new thinking and transformative discoveries in all areas of science and engineering research and education."Beginning in summer 2023, the BSSw Fellowship Program (BSSwF) will be administered by the BSSwF Management Partnership, consisting of Sustainable Horizons Institute (who provide extensive experience in managing workforce development programs), a representative from NSF, and the scientists at Argonne, Berkeley, Livermore, Oak Ridge, and Sandia National Laboratories who launched the BSSwF and lead it. The successes—and clear synergies of the BSSwF with NSF’s Blueprint for CI Learning and Workforce Development—lay the foundation for continuing NSF sponsorship of three BSSw Fellows and three Honorable Mentions for the 2024 fellowship class. The program includes innovative workforce development methodologies and approaches designed to engage a broad range of diverse CI professionals on multiple fronts, including phase of career, age, institution type and size, and topical specialty. A specific focus is broadening participation of underrepresented groups, including people who are Black or African American, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, women, persons with disabilities, and first-generation scholars. The BSSw Fellowship Program enhances CI workforce development and pathways to NSF and DOE software communities, through community building and by nurturing a diverse network of people who advance software practices as a fundamental aspect of increasing overall scientific productivity and providing much-needed recognition for their contributions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.