CodeRefinery2

Research relies heavily on software, and too often research software is developed inefficiently, without peer review, or without considering reproducibility and reusability. CodeRefinery addresses these issues for the Nordic research communities via training workshops and infrastructure services.

The project is a follow-up of the CodeRefinery project (phase 1), a two-year project, which started in October 2016 and concluded in September 2018. During phase 1, the project delivered 13 three-day workshops across the Nordics, 5 shorter events, and taught over 400 students and researchers.

The project has informal ties to The Carpentries and the Software Sustainability Institute. It can be seen as an extension of The Carpentries to more advanced programming skills and as beginning the formation of a Research Software Engineering network in the Nordics. The CodeRefinery project has developed a very fruitful, informal cooperation with Aalto Science-IT, which resulted in two workshops and collaborative lesson development.

In phase 1, CodeRefinery learned that the students and researchers who write software to produce or analyze data are in critical need of the proposed training portfolio on software management, and currently only NeIC has the scale, network, and expertise to fill this need in the Nordics until these workshops become part of the university curriculum. Phase 1 of the project could already match this obvious need of the research community exceptionally well, as shown by almost always fully-booked workshops and the resulting surveys.