DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13990521
title: Strategic priorities and challenges in research software funding: Results from an international survey (Dataset)

description: Research software is increasingly recognized as critical infrastructure in contemporary science. Research software spans a broad spectrum, including source code files, algorithms, scripts, computational workflows, and executables, all created for or during research. Research funders have developed programs, initiatives and policies to bolster research software’s role. However, there has been no empirical study of how research funders prioritize support for research software. This information is needed to clarify where current funder support is concentrated and where strategic gaps may exist. Here, we present data from a survey of research software funders (n=36) from around the world. The survey explored these funders’ priorities, finding a strong emphasis on developing skills, software sustainability, embedding open science, building community and collaboration, advancing research software funding, increasing software visibility and use, innovation and security. 

Methods

This research was carried out using a survey combining qualitative and quantitative items. The survey was designed to investigate how research software funders support research software’s sustainability and impact.

The study was reviewed and given an exempt determination by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institutional Review Board (no. 24374).

Survey design

The survey designed for this study began by collecting profile information, including institutional affiliation and job title. The survey gathered information about respondents’ organization’s initiatives, policies, or programs to support research software. The range of questions yielded too much data for one article. In this article, we focus exclusively on the results generated via an open-ended question asking about the top priorities for the respondents’ organizations’ support for research software: “What are your organization's top priorities related to research software?”. Four open-response text boxes were provided for respondents to indicate and list these priorities.

Sampling

This survey was aimed at international research funders, including governmental and non-governmental (e.g., philanthropic) funders. A list of contacts to invite to participate in this survey was created based on participation in the Research Software Association (ReSA) and responsibility for research software funding known to the authors. This initial list of people was refined, with removals based on individuals having moved to unrelated professional roles or being unavailable long-term, for example, due to personal issues.

The final, refined contact list comprised 71 people. After removing individuals when a member of their organization already provided a complete answer or when the person turned out to no longer be working on a relevant topic or to be otherwise unavailable (total of n=30), 41 people remained. Five of these individuals did not complete the survey, while 36 people (representing 30 research funding organizations) did, yielding a response rate of 87.8%. Fully completed survey responses were not required for individuals to be retained in the sample, resulting in varied sample bases across survey questions.

The sample includes research funders in North and South America, Europe, Oceania and Asia, but over-represents North America and European funder representatives. Some participating funders cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, while others focus on a particular domain such as social science, health, environment, physical sciences or humanities.






Continent



Count





North America



15





South America



4





Europe



12





Oceania



3





Asia



1





The respondents represented research funders supported by governmental (n=26), philanthropic (n=6) and corporate (n=1) resources.

Respondents’ job titles span the following categories: Senior Leadership and Executive, such as a Vice President of Strategy; Program and Project Management, such as Senior Program Manager; Planning and Business Development; Scientific, Technical and IT, such as Scientific Information Lead.

Most respondents 72.7% (n=24) answered ‘Yes’ to the question, “Has your organization established any policies, initiatives or programs aimed at supporting research software?”, while 18.2% (n=6) said ‘No’ and 9.1% (n=3) ‘Unsure’.

Data collection, management and analysis

Data collection took place from December 2023 to May 2024. The mean completion time for the detailed survey was 28 minutes and 13 seconds.

The data were cleaned and prepared for analysis by removing any identifiable respondent details. The data analysis process followed a standard thematic qualitative analysis approach (e.g., Jensen & Laurie, 2016). This involved first identifying themes and organizing the data accordingly. Dimensions of each theme were identified where relevant. Then data extracts were selected from the survey responses associated with each theme and theme dimension. 

 
description: Consent block of the survey

Thank you for your interest in this research study!

This study invites research funder representatives from around the world to share their experiences and perspectives. Our research focuses on how policies and practices can make research software more sustainable and impactful. Specifically, it examines research funders’ expectations, experiences, objectives, and plans related to efforts around software policies and sustainability.

This study is aimed at understanding the bigger picture and identifying the factors that lead to successful research funding policy. Your insights will help inform the development of better strategies to improve the longevity and effectiveness of research software. It will also allow us to identify potential roadblocks and devise ways to overcome them, thereby making the research software landscape more conducive to ongoing innovation and improvement.

We appreciate your time and valuable contributions to this study. Your participation will go a long way in shaping the future of research software policy.Who should participate in this study?This survey is intended for research funder representatives. How are you being asked to help?Online survey (~15 min.) > Online interview (~45-60 minutes) > online workshop (120-180 minutes)

If you choose to participate in this study, you will be asked to fill out a survey online about your experiences, expectations, and interactions with efforts to improve research software policies and sustainability (10-15 minutes). 

Next, you may be invited to participate in a recorded online interview (approx. 45 minutes), where we will discuss in more detail your organization’s past initiatives and future plans to bolster research software’s sustainability and impact.

Finally, you may be invited to take part in a recorded online discussion workshop. During these virtual sessions, we'll share our early results and ask for your thoughts on them. 

We might also invite you to participate in future stages of this project or similar research, but whether you choose to participate is entirely up to you at every stage.

Institutional Review Board:

If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, including concerns, complaints, or to offer input, you may call the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects (OPRS) at 217-333-2670 or e-mail OPRS at irb@illinois.edu. If you would like to complete a brief survey to provide OPRS feedback about your experiences as a research participant, please follow the link here or through a link on the OPRS website: https://oprs.research.illinois.edu/. You will have the option to provide feedback or concerns anonymously or you may provide your name and contact information for follow-up purposes.

 

There are just a few things we would like to point out before you continue:

●        Your participation in this research is fully voluntary. You can tell us that you don’t want to be in this study. You can start the study and then choose to stop the study later.

●        Any personally identifiable information you provide will be kept confidential by default. This will be achieved by maintaining data in password-secured digital storage and separating personally identifiable information from the rest of the research data based on your explicit preferences.

●        The data you submit will be fully anonymized prior to open publication by default. 

●        The data will be analyzed and used to create outputs aimed at research, industry and professional development.

 

At this stage, please download and read the Participant Information Sheet [link to be embedded].

Please indicate whether you understand and agree with the statements above, and are willing to participate in this survey: [Checkbox]

o   I have read and understood the information contained in the Participant Information Sheet.

o   Yes, I understand, agree, and am willing to participate in this research.

 

In addition, please also indicate whether you opt-in to these uses of personally identifiable data: [Checkbox]

(This will not affect your eligibility to participate in the survey.)

Yes, you may indicate my name (or other professional identifier) as a research participant (e.g., in the acknowledgements of the report not linked to any specific responses).

Yes, you may keep me up to date on project results using the contact details I have provided (e.g., an invitation to presentations/webinars on findings).

Yes, you may re-contact me for the purposes of this research.

Yes, you may re-contact me for future studies on related topics.



Please note: There is a risk that confidentiality may be lost where personally identifiable data have been contributed, though this is not anticipated. There are no other known risks to your participation.


 

This study is funded by The Sloan Foundation. The project researcher, Dr. Eric A. Jensen (ej2021@illinois.edu), and principal investigator, Daniel S. Katz (dskatz@illinois.edu), are based at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

Are you currently located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom? 

€     Yes [Form to automatically display the GDPR section that follows and record the answers to the questions as indicated, if selected]

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Notice/Consent

The University of Illinois System Privacy Statement and Supplemental Privacy Notice for certain persons in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom describe in detail how the University processes personal information.

Your personal information will be collected for the purpose of research as previously described in this informed consent notice.

In addition, your personal information will be processed outside of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom on University of Illinois servers, other collaborating university servers, and/or with cloud storage services hosted by third parties.

I consent to the processing of my personal information for the purpose of research as set forth in this informed consent notice. I understand that I may withdraw my consent at any time, but doing so will not affect the processing of my personal information before my withdrawal of consent.

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Research Participation Consent

I have read and understand the above consent form, I certify that I am 18 years old or older and, by clicking the submit button to enter the survey, I indicate my willingness to voluntarily take part in the study.

 

The University of Illinois System Privacy Statement (https://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/resources/web_privacy) and University of Illinois Supplemental Privacy Notice for certain persons in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom (http://go.uillinois.edu/GDPR) describe in detail how the University processes personal information.

In just a minute, I will ask if you consent to my interviewing you and collecting your personal information for the purpose of research as set forth in the Informed Consent Notice I previously emailed to you. If you decide to consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time, but doing so will not affect the processing of your personal information before withdrawing your consent.

In addition, your personal information will be processed outside of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom on University of Illinois servers, other collaborating university servers, and/or with cloud storage services hosted by third parties.

Do you have any questions about participating in this study?

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o   No

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Do you consent to participating in this research and to allowing me to process your personal information for the purpose of my research?

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