Research Software – September 2019 Newsletter

Canadian Research Software Conference 2019

Our 2019 Canadian Research Software Conference took place on May 27th – 29th in Montreal. The room was at capacity, and we had two packed days of engaging talks from Dr. Pablo Castro, Dr. Jonathan Kelly, Dr. Gail Murphy, and many other members of the research software community. Attendees said they most enjoyed discussing new techniques for creating research software and the impact of research software on major issues like global warming and cancer care. They also appreciated the time available to network with peers and share best practices on technologies like Docker Swarm, and Jenkins.

The presentation slides are now available on our website.

Interested in participating in the 2020 Canadian Research Software Conference?

Stay tuned for the call for submissions in early 2020. We will be looking for long-form talks, 5 minute lightning talks, and applicants to our poster competition. We’d also love to hear of any keynote speaker recommendations you’d like to pass on. Please let us know at crsc@canarie.ca.

The Research Software Program announced a new funding call for research teams to adapt existing software for re-use by new research teams. At the same time, the Research Data Management Program (RDM) announced a second funding call to enhance interoperability of research data management components (platforms, repositories, and services) that form part of the national data services (NDS).

We have scheduled a webinar to discuss details and answer questions about the Research Software call. Details and registration information below.

Research Software Call 3 Key Information

  • Information webinar:
  • Proposal submission deadline: November 28, 2019 – 1:00 pm ET

Research Software Call 3 Information Page and Application

Research Data Management Call 2 Key Information

  • Proposal submission deadline: October 29, 2019 – 1:00 pm ET

RDM Call 2 Information Page and Application

Local Support Update

Local support teams are up and running at Carleton University, University of Regina, and McMaster University. These support teams were established to support local researchers in using, developing, enhancing, repurposing and maintaining research software.

As we are collecting a range of metrics from these teams, we’ll have the opportunity to determine the value of having full time developers on site to support researchers. Based on our experience with these teams and the data collected, we’ll determine next steps for this initiative.

Guest Blog Post: Electronic Textual Cultures Lab

CANARIE has been collaborating with the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL) at the University of Victoria to deploy customized HUBzero instances. ETCL wrote a blog post about how they’re leveraging HUBzero for their own platform, the Canadian HHS Commons.

Read the blog post

Software Development Articles

If you’d like to start managing the development of software for your research team, check out the curated articles and videos featured below.

Agile software development methodologies aim to make the software development lifecycle more responsive to the needs of final users. These methodologies have become prevalent in the private industry over the last few years. They’re as useful to research software as they are to private industries, and are becoming more popular among research software teams. Check out this video that describes how SCRUM, one of the more popular Agile software methodologies, can be used to manage complex software development.

For more details in getting started with SCRUM here are some good links to start with: