SSI: The UK Software Sustainability Institute

这项提议旨在为英国软件可持续发展研究所(SSI)争取未来五年的支持，该研究所将与研究社区合作，确定需要持续发展的关键软件。今天，来自许多不同学科的研究人员依靠软件进行高质量的研究。该软件必须能够满足研究人员不断变化的需求，才能保持相关性。它必须能够改变、适应并与研究人员一起踏上体现领先研究的探索、创新和发现之旅。软件可持续性是这一旅程的关键；研究中使用的软件必须在其原始资金周期之后进行管理，并加强、调整和定制以供创始社区内外和其他社区的研究人员采用，以产生可以传递给后代研究人员的影响。重要研究软件的可持续发展需要合作伙伴关系。只有通过软件开发人员和科学家之间的密切合作，才能在软件开发和领域科学方面取得进展。这不是一个激进的观点。敏捷开发方法论最成功的方面之一是关注开发人员和客户之间的持续交互：业务人员和开发人员必须在整个项目中每天一起工作。敏捷方法对科学软件开发的好处大于对商业软件的好处；我们作为OMII-UK的工作经验强调了这一点。通过诸如Engage和eDIKT2这样的项目，我们与研究人员合作，改进他们的软件。由于每个社区的需求不同，我们开发的系统非常适合不同成熟度的社区和软件：一刀切不适合所有人。我们建议为英国建立一个软件可持续发展研究所，它将建立一个以专业软件工程技能为基础的国家联络点--一个为研究软件用户和开发人员提供的设施，以推动研究软件的持续改进和影响，并以实用同行伙伴关系的概念为基础：将英国境内的关键研究小组与我们联盟的熟练团队成员聚集在一起，提供一系列真正的合作伙伴关系，专注于通过咨询建议(如测试设计或帮助开发工具)改进重要的研究软件；协作伙伴关系，例如通过帮助代码重构；以及长期参与，以培养发展社区的关系并利用其他活动的势头。这将建立在合作伙伴与许多不同的研究社区以及与NGS、EGI、NESSI和PRACES等基础设施倡议的现有联系的基础上。我们的方法将确保研究中使用的软件在其原始资助周期之后得到管理：它将得到加强、调整和定制，供研究人员、创始社区内和其他地方的研究人员采用，以产生可供未来几代研究人员建立的影响-最终提供新的高质量研究。

This proposal seeks to gain support for the next five years for the UK Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) that will work in partnership with research communities to identify key software that needs to be sustained.Researchers today from many different disciplines rely on software to carry out high quality research. This software must be able to serve the changing needs of the researcher to remain relevant. It must be able to change, adapt, and travel with the researcher on the journey of exploration, innovation and discovery which embodies leading research.Software sustainability is the key to this journey; it is essential that software used in research is managed beyond the lifetime of its original funding cycle, and strengthened, adapted and customised for adoption by researchers within the founding community and outside, in other communities to create a impact which can be transferred to future generations of researchers.The sustainability of important research software requires partnership. Only through close collaboration between software developers and scientists can advances be made both in software development and domain sciences. This is not a radical view. One of the most successful aspects of Agile development methodologies is a focus on ongoing interactions between developers and customers: business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. The benefits of Agile methods for scientific software development are greater than for business software; and our experiences through our work as OMII-UK underline this emphatically. Through programmes such as ENGAGE and eDIKT2 we have worked in partnership with researchers to improve their software. As each community's requirements are different, the system we have developed is well suited to communities and software of varying maturity: one size does not fit all. We propose a Software Sustainability Institute for the UK which will establish a national focal point - a facility for research software users and developers - based around specialist software engineering skills for driving the continued improvement and impact of research software, using as its foundation the concept of Practical Peer Partnerships: bringing together key research groups within the UK with the skilled team members from our consortium to deliver a series of genuine partnerships focused on the improvement of vital research software through consultative advice, such as test design or help with development tools; collaborative partnerships, e.g. by helping with code refactoring; and long-term engagement, for cultivating the relationships which grow communities and harness the momentum of other activities. This will build on the partners existing connections to many different research communities, and to infrastructure initiatives such as the NGS, EGI, NESSI and PRACE.Our approach will ensure that software used in research is managed beyond the lifetime of its original funding cycle: it will be strengthened, adapted and customised for adoption by researchers, within the founding community and elsewhere, to create an impact which can be built on by future generations of researchers - ultimately to deliver new high quality research.