By Thomas Pronk, Lieke de Boer and Carlos Martinez Ortiz, NL-RSE

How are Dutch RSEs doing in 2022/2023? We've sent around a brief survey to find out, which was completed by 23 people. Read on to learn how well RSE interests are safeguarded, what RSEs actually do, and what NL-RSE meetups should look like.

How (well) are the interests of RSEs safeguarded at their institutions?

The histogram below shows how many participants agreed with the following statement: "The interests of RSEs are safeguarded at my institute". As a substantial number of RSEs agreed with this statement, but there are still places where this seems not to be the case at all.

It seems that a lot of progress have been made over the past years. However, there is more to be done. All but one participant agreed that NL-RSE should represent the interests of RSEs nation-wide and so we shall keep representing you. To get an idea how we could do so best, we asked how interests are safeguarded (or not). Some aspects that RSEs where positive (or negative) about, were:

• Opportunities for training and career development
• Recognition of the importance of research software to science
• Recognition of research software as scientific output in its own right
• The degree to which RSEs felt isolated or connected in institution-wide networks

What do RSEs do?

The histograms below show what kind of activities the work of RSEs entails. As one could expect, many RSEs perform engineering work, while a subtantial number also educate people. A lot of variation could be found in the number of RSEs that do science and/or management. It appers that the work of an RSE encompasses much more than just computer programming, reaffirming that research software engineering is a unique discipline in its own right.

Why do you go to NL-RSE meetups?

We asked what opportunities motivated you to go to NL-RSE meetups:

• Practically all participants want to get inspired
• A majority also went to expand their network and to learn about technical topics
• About half of the participants would like to learn about RSE-related policy
• A small number sought support from other people and/or feedback on their work

How would you like to take part in NL-RSE meetups?

Only two participants preferred online meetups, while all others preferred hybrid or in-person meetups.

Conclusion

We will keep representing the interests of RSEs. In particular, we hope to learn from institutions where things are doing well. We will bring their lessons to places where things can improve, especially with regard to training, career development, recognition, and community.

We will keep organizing interesting meetups, with topics that inspire you, increase your technical knowledge, and offer networking opportunities. The meetups will be in-person, ideally with a hybrid option.

Code for figures in this blog post can be found here.

Would you like to be informed about meetups and other NL-RSE news? Be sure to join the NL-RSE mailinglist!