EPSRC Research Software Engineer (RSE) Fellowships

Funding opportunities

This EPSRC call will support Research Software Engineer (RSE) Fellowships for a period of up to five years. The RSE Fellowship describes exceptional individuals with combined expertise in programming and a solid knowledge of the research environment. The Research Software Engineer works with researchers to gain an understanding of the problems they face, and then develops, maintains and extends software to provide the answers.

To support the role of RSEs and establish a cohort in the academic environment, up to £3m is available for this pilot call. Candidates are invited to provide an ‘Intent to Submit’ document in the first instance to register interest. Full proposals will be subject to a rigorous peer review and sift process before a final selection by interview.

Background

Software developed for experimental facilities and instrumentation, modelling, simulation and data-analysis is a critical and valuable resource. Software and algorithm development represents major investments by skilled scientists and engineers, and the large suite of codes and algorithms used in research should be regarded as a research infrastructure, requiring support and maintenance along the innovation chain, and throughout its lifecycle.

Through the publication of “EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy”, EPSRC has recognised the importance of investing in software development. Previous funding has focused on support for the development of the key software codes that are used by the EPS community in their research. However, other important aspects of the strategy are the development of skills and career development for those engaged in software engineering, and it is these aspects that this call addresses.

The EPSRC-funded Software Sustainability Institute has begun a campaign to develop a UK community of Research Software Engineers, with the aim of raising awareness of their roles, and improving their career paths and reward/recognition within Universities.

This funding opportunity is a pilot in support of the concept of Research Software Engineers. For further background, please see the following links:

Resources

Closing date for Statement of Intent is 4pm, 12 June 2015.  You mush submit a Statement of Intent first and these will be used to select who can submit a full application.  The full application closing date is 4pm, 21 July 2015.

If you are interested in applying for this fellowship then you must contact RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.

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