The University of Manchester’s central Research IT - Research Software Engineering (RSE) team, along with its wider research community, made valuable contributions to the 16th CW event—an undeniable highlight of this year’s research software calendar.
Highlights from the event have been organised into the following sections
Ruth Nanjala, a PhD student from the University of Oxford, opened the session focusing on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion within the RSE community. She discussed two projects: InclusiveRSE, and My Science Journey. The latter shares scientific narratives and builds mentoring networks across Africa to support aspiring science students. Her talk set a positive tone for the conference.
Kirstie Whitaker, from the Berkeley Institute for Data Science delivered the second keynote on the Future of Research Software. Building on her previous presentation at CW18, she provided a retrospective view of the development of research software, emphasising the evolution of her perspective. Her talk highlighted the significance of the human aspect in research software, particularly the importance of trust and community building.
Tom Wilkinson, Chief Data Officer of the Scottish Government, delivered the third keynote on the application of AI and data in government services. He highlighted initiatives such as the AI Register, Taskforce, and the Scottish Digital Academy, underscoring the principles of trustworthy, ethical, and inclusive AI. He also discussed recent research on AI, and the impact of 'fast' and 'slow'. Finally he reassured attendees of the continued presence of human oversight.
The CW25 panel discussion focused on the importance of EDI for the future of Research Software. The panel included:
- Ella Kaye (University of Warwick)
- Malvika Sharan (OLS, The Alan Turing Institute)
- Eli Chadwick, Pauline Nyakairu Karega and Anita Banerji (University of Manchester).
The conversation began with a call to build EDI networks across the broader RSE community to foster a sense of belonging. Panellists discussed how community guidelines and inclusive initiatives help create safe spaces for all participants. The development of the R community was cited as a successful example.
The discussion then turned to the current international political environment and the growing importance of supporting EDI within the international RSE community. Increased support will help counter misinformation and ensure the contributions of individuals from marginalised groups in technology and research are shared and acknowledged.
Finally, the panel addressed EDI in the context of Open Source software accessibility. Developers were encouraged to engage with end-users early on accessibility issues. However, it was noted that outside of web development, resources are limited—especially for self-taught developers—making it challenging to build accessible software.
Importantly, this panel was scheduled as a standalone session, allowing all attendees to participate. Many appreciated not having to choose between EDI-focused discussions and more technical sessions, a common issue at conferences.
Fresh from our second internal agile methods training course , we supported the organisers of the hack-day by providing a customised template GitHub repository and project board project board. These were tailored from our internal team templates with specific UoM Research IT workflows removed while retaining essential elements like the branch layouts, protection rules, and issue templates. We also incorporated the latest features of GitHub project boards, including sub-issues.
To ensure participants could easily navigate these tools, we included step-by-step instructions for setting up both the code repository and the project board. Additionally, the RSE team offered hands-on support, providing assistance with setup and acting as scrum masters if needed.
At the start of the hack-day, Scott presented a slideshow prepared by Doug, outlining the day’s operations and offering guidance on integrating Agile methods and tooling.
GitHub and GitLab continue to grow in popularity as platforms for code and project management. Many hack teams already had repositories and boards in place, but this year saw several new teams exploring these tools for the first time. Some delegates even adopted rulesets from our templates into their existing repositories and projects.
The judging committee noted an elevated standard in project management this year, with every hack project utilising such tools. This highlights the growing need to promote effective project management and collaborative coding practices throughout the community. We aim to build on these insights and offer similar services at future workshops and conferences.
Hack-day projects of note
- Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software (DIRECT Framework), this originally started as a hack-day project at Collaborations Workshop 2023
- CarpentriesMagic, a project designing processes and tools for automating the creation of websites and administration for a carpentries lesson
- BRIDGE (Better Research via Inclusive Design-Driven Guided Experiences)
- How to Run a Meeting, for dRTPs
- Versioned Papers
CAKE: Computational Abilities Knowledge Exchange
The CAKE knowledge exchange network was launched by UKRI and the UK government in July 2025.
After reading a Research IT blog on community outreach, Oscar Seip contacted the UoM’s RSE team to pool ideas for outreach materials, such as flyers and posters, to share with the UK RSE community at events such as careers fairs. Initially, we submitted a workshop proposal solely relating to outreach. However, we were later invited by the CW organisers to work with the CAKE team to integrate our ideas into their workshop.
Our joint workshop gathered feedback from participants on what they saw as important, or not, relating to exchanging and disseminating information and knowledge within the wider digital research community. Now that we have established this connection with the CAKE network, we will assist with future events and will share insights with the UoM CaDiR networks.
Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software and Data Professionals
DIRECT framework is a community project mapping digital research skills and competencies into a framework to support diverse progression pathways for digital research technical professionals.
The workshop was co-led by Aleksandra Nenadic, Phil Reed, and Aman Goel (University of Manchester), with contributions from collaborators including David Horsfall (Newcastle University), Adrian D'Alessandro (Imperial College London), Jonathan Cooper (UCL), and Eli Chadwick (University of Manchester),
The session invited participants to reflect on how well the existing version of the framework captures the skills needed across a range of domains. Following brief introductions, the participants did a hands-on review of the framework, providing feedback via shared documents. These live contributions not only helped assess the current structure but also filled in the gaps in the missing training resources and seeded ideas for future improvements and collaboration.
The Software Sustainability Institute (SSI), which plays a key role in organising the Collaborations Workshop, is co-hosted by the University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Southampton. In addition to attending the event, members of the University of Manchester’s central RSE team contributed to the organisation of the workshop. They participated in panel discussions and provided tools, frameworks, and coaching to support the hack-day. Many thanks to everyone who worked hard to make the event a resounding success, including:
- Eli Chadwick – Panel Discussion; Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software
- Shoaib Sufi – Event Organising Committee; Research Software Quality Kit
- Aleksandra Nenadic – Research Software Quality Kit; Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software
- Phil Reed – Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software
- Pauline Nyakairu Karega – Panel Discussion
- Caterina Doglioni – Real-Time Analysis in SMARTHEP (Sustainable Data Acquisition)
- Oscar Seip – Society of RSE EDIA Working Group; CAKE
- Anita Banerji – Panel Discussion
- Doug Lowe, Scott Archer-Nicholls, Aman Goel – Skills and Competencies Framework for Research Software
- Andrew Gait – CAKE