The training will consist of three parts:
For more details on how to register, head to the website. This training is funded by DisCouRSE’s flexible fund round 1 award, aimed at empowering dRTPs to be effective future leaders.
]]>If you plan to attend please register by Monday 11th May. This event will focus on the policy and funding landscape for RSEs, with a particular emphasis on shaping advocacy for RSE career pathways.
The Society of RSE has recently launched a Policy & Funding Working Group, to help the Society better advocate for RSEs with institutions, funders, and policy makers. Attendees will contribute to the Working Group’s strategy and help shape the key advocacy areas that the Society will focus on in the coming years.
We invite participants to submit 5-minute lightning talks reflecting on policy successes (or failures) within their institutions or disciplinary communities.
There will be some funding to support travel bursaries. If you require support to attend in-person, please indicate that when you register. Funding and lightning talk decisions will be communicated by Monday 18th May.
The event will run alongside Durham HPC Days, which is taking place from 15-19 June. If you wish to attend any of the other sessions of Durham HPC Days, you will need to register separately. For those staying in Durham after the meeting, there will be an informal pub trip that all are welcome to attend.
The event is jointly hosted by Durham University Advanced Research Computing SocRSE’s Policy & Funding Working Group, and the RSE Leaders Network SIG.
]]>CW26 will focus on strengthening the research software community, fostering national and international collaboration, supporting career development, and embedding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in research software practice. The event will feature keynotes, mini-workshops, discussion sessions, and a Hack Day, providing a collaborative space for researchers, developers, and practitioners to share knowledge, co-create solutions, and build connections across the sector.
CW26 will be held as a hybrid event, with both in-person and online participation options. Registration via Eventbrite closes on 31st March.
DisCouRSE will be contributing through multiple workshops including on dRTP career pathways and the DIRECT framework, and project lead Jonathan Cooper will take part in a fireside chat on professionalising roles and strengthening recognition in Research Software.
]]>You will collaborate in cross institution teams, experiment on authentic datasets, and see how your expertise directly drives new scientific insight.
Digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) this is a chance for you to build and practice your leadership, teamwork, and communication skills under time pressure. Whether you are early career or an established professional, you will leave with new techniques, new collaborators, and fresh ideas you can take back to your home institution. Step into the ExoHack universe and put your digital research skills to work on real exoplanet challenges!
This event is linked to ADAPT Assessing dRTP Advancement Paths Through Hackathons a project funded by DisCouRSE’s flexible fund led by Arun Nambiyath Govindan at UCL.
Places are limited, so if you want hands on experience at the interface of AI, astronomy, and digital research practice and to help shape the future of dRTP led hackathons register now.
]]>The majority of people involved in research using Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) want to understand and reduce the emissions associated with their research activities to help support the transition to net zero emissions from research.
DRI includes a broad range of infrastructure, including:
Although many researchers want to take action, they are often limited by:
This workshop will provide insight into recent efforts to understand the skills required to empower researchers and digital research technical professionals to both implement and advocate for positive environmental impact when using DRI for research.
Registration is now open.
The workshop is being held alongside the ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026, taking place 19–20 March 2026.
Participants are welcome to register for:
This workshop is organised by EPCC and supported by:
Note that this event is in-person only with no hybrid option. Registration has now closed.
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 9.15-9.30 | Arrival |
| 9.30-9.45 | Welcome and introduction - chaired by Arianna |
| 9.45-10.10 | Provocation “Maybe you’re not actually a good team leader” by Katie Best - Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Business School, King’s College London, Leadership Consultant & Coach |
| 10.10-10.35 | Response “Enabling Community Leadership” by Emma Karoune - Principal Researcher, Alan Turing Institute |
| 10.35-11.05 | Discussion on terminology and key reflections - facilitated by Jonathan |
| 11.05-11.20 | Break |
| 11.20-12:35 | Leadership models – presentations by the community - chaired by Mark |
| 1. Creating Mentally Healthy Teams: a Practical 3-Tier Model for dRTP Leadership – Dave Horsfall (Head of Biomedical Research Software, University of Newcastle) | |
| 2. A dRTP Team as a Service Provider - Chris Fullerton (Deputy Head of RSE, University of Manchester) | |
| 3. The distributed RSE team of the DiRAC facility - Ilektra Christidi (Senior Research Software Engineer, ARC, DiRAC team co-lead, University College London) | |
| 4. Reflections on identity and culture in a new group: emergence vs design - James Graham (Head of RSE, e-Research, King’s College London) | |
| 5. Systems leadership in research communities - Sara Villa (Community and Training Lead, OLS/The Turing Way) | |
| 12.35-13.20 | Lunch |
| 13.20-13.50 | Discussion on models - facilitated by Kirsty |
| 13.50-14.20 | Reflections on key practices, challenges and relevance to dRTPs - facilitated by Dave |
| 14.20-14.30 | Comfort break |
| 14.30-15.20 | Competencies and Training: DIRECT framework and beyond - facilitated by Adrian |
| 15.20-15.30 | Closure and follow up - chaired by Dave |
With thanks to colleagues Antonia Coote, Jodie Jackson, Zihao Lu, Mehdi Mehtarizadeh, Pam Mellen, Gillian Sinclair, and Shane Warren for their contributions to this event.
We use focus group in the business analysis sense as a technique bringing together a selected group of experts in a structured and facilitated setting to gain multiple perspectives on the same topic rather than necessarily gain consensus or produce a specific output. (Paul et al. 2020) ↩
By team we intend a highly interdependent group who “plan work, solve problems, make decisions, and review progress in service of a specific project. Team members need one another to get work done.” (https://rework.withgoogle.com/intl/en/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness) ↩
Not necessary but you might want to find out more about Project Aristotle and the Four I’s of Transformational Leadership prior to the focus group. ↩
Not necessary but you might want to find more about the concept of emergent strategy in this book by Adrienne Maree Brown and browse these resources from The Turing Way: Emergence as The Turing Way’s Strategy; Important Features of Leadership. ↩
You can find out more about the DIRECT framework draft at https://directframework.com/ ↩
We will take part in a joint session within the main programme (before lunch on Friday) showcasing all the recently funded Network+ projects in the Digital Research Infrastructure space.
The conference will also include a breakout session on Thursday morning in our Understanding the dRTP landscape series, co-organised by the SCALE-UP and CHARTED projects.
]]>This joint event, co-organised by CHARTED and SCALE-UP, aims to:
The workshop will also identify gaps in provision and areas where new or adapted content is needed, and where teams are working on similar materials and could fruitfully collaborate. Those efforts are another step towards making professional skill development easier and improving career prospects across the whole dRTP ecosystem. The workshop outcomes will be shared with the dRTP community.
We are hoping to better outline and understand the whole dRTP ecosystem, therefore, we would like to extend an invitation to dRTPs working in different roles and at different institution types, and engaging with a wide range of research communities.
There will be plenty of opportunities for discussion during the interactive sessions and we look forward to seeing many of you at the event. Please complete the registration form to join. There is no registration fee for the event. The detailed agenda will be circulated close to the event date.
We would be happy to provide support for a few participants whose organisation/projects cannot cover travel costs. If you would like to attend the event but need any travel support, please apply for the travel support by answering the relevant questions in the registration form.
If there are any questions for the registration, please contact the event organiser.
]]>A key feature of the event will be the second session in our Understanding the dRTP landscape series, co-organised by the SCALE-UP and CHARTED projects.
]]>Slides and the video are now available, along with answers to common questions.
]]>This series of events is a collaboration between the CHARTED, NetDRIVE, DisCouRSE and SCALE UP projects.
On the path to Net Zero, digital research infrastructure (DRI) must become more sustainable - not only through greener technology but by equipping the people who use, run, and build it with the right skills, awareness and the confidence to act. Research software engineers, data stewards, systems administrators, and other digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) are at the heart of this transition.
To embed sustainability in their everyday work, we need to understand which “green skills” matter for each role and how best to support them through training, recognition and confidence building. This series of events will try to close the gap between sustainability efforts and the daily work of dRTPs. We want to first understand which “green skills” are relevant to which dRTP roles, and then to understand how best to develop training content that would allow us to truly embed the green principles across all roles in our ecosystem.
]]>Project lead Jonathan Cooper presented an overview of the DisCouRSE Network and announced the upcoming flexible funding launch in both the RSE Leaders satellite day and the main conference programme.
Co-lead Dave Horsfall led a workshop on the DIRECT Framework.
Other project co-leads presented on tools and processes for running groups, and on environmental sustainability.
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