Unconference sessions

RSEs, research support staff, library staff, Digital Competence Center staff, and Data Stewards need more than technical expertise to collaborate effectively and support researchers. Skills like clear communication, active listening, and translating research needs into solutions are just as vital as coding, yet rarely addressed in training. This session brings together those in similar roles to discuss key skills, share experiences and resources, and practice active listening in a supportive setting.

The rapid rise of LLMs in research highlights the need for secure, privacy-preserving, and legally compliant infrastructures. This session explores how local LLM clusters can be developed and supported across Dutch institutions, addressing challenges around data protection, sustainability, and compliance. Participants are invited to share their experiences and needs to help shape sustainable, FAIR, and community-driven infrastructure for responsible LLM use in research.

Since 2017, NL-RSE has provided a community for research software engineers (RSEs) working in the Netherlands across academia, industry, and related sectors, comprising 400 individuals who are actively engaged in research software development. This unconference session will gather input from the community on the current role of NL-RSE and explore how it might evolve, with discussion topics including priorities, needs, and opportunities for future activities.

Despite the essential role of software in modern research, reproducibility checks are still missing from the scientific publishing process. At TU Delft, the Digital Competence Centre and 4TU.ResearchData have launched a reproducibility check service where researchers can request a CODECHECK—an independent execution of the computations behind their research. In this unconference session, participants will learn about the initiative, try a CODECHECK themselves, and explore how to adopt and promote reproducibility best practices within their own communities.

Installing scientific software can be a challenge, from dependency issues to missing instructions. In this session, we introduce EESSI—the European Environment for Scientific Software—an open source project that streams a hardware-optimized software stack to any Linux machine, delivering hundreds of packages out of the box. Participants will learn how EESSI works, try it out, and discuss potential use cases, including distributing their own software through the platform.