There is the saying: ‘Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime’. This saying applies to researchers who are writing research software. Even with a RSEs at a university, researchers will continue to write a lot of research software and it is important for RSEs to positively impact this software. By working with researchers, we can upskill researchers so that they write high quality software – leading to the SSI’s ‘Better Software, Better Research’.
I will talk about the coaching programme we provide to researchers, where we engage with researchers in several ways to improve the research software being written and to make it easier for this software to be distributed and reused. We offer a variety of training, coaching, and mentorship to all levels of researchers – from those to just starting their research career to senior researchers. I will present case studies detailing some of the coaching we have provided and how this has improved the research software being written at this university.
