Amsterdam Declaration on Funding Research Software Sustainability

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: “Funders should stimulate the documentation, licensing, open-source distribution, and accessibility of research software to enable the reproducibility of research outcomes.”
Recommendation 2: “Funders should incentivize the reuse and improvement of existing research software.”
Recommendation 3: “Funders should include research software in open science policies, following the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’, to ensure it is a valuable and impactful research output.”

Recommendation 4: “Funders should stimulate the development and maintenance of a research software ecosystem, including people, communities, and infrastructure, to ensure research software sustainability.”
Recommendation 5: “Funders should share information about their investments and work in a coordinated manner, as the research software ecosystem exceeds institutional and national boundaries.”
Recommendation 6: “Funders should ensure that funding instruments are fit for purpose for both sustainability and innovation, so that research software is both maintained and developed for the longer term, to encourage a healthy research software ecosystem.”

Recommendation 7: “Funders should stimulate the training, hiring, and funding of both professional research and technical staff able to reuse, develop, and maintain sustainable research software.”
Recommendation 8: “Funders should facilitate appropriate reward and recognition measures that enable career progression for all people involved in the creation and maintenance of research software.”
Recommendation 9: “Funders should require citation practices for research software that recognise substantial contributors to all aspects of the software.”

Recommendation 10: “Funders should encourage the responsible use of appropriate indicators to assess the degree of permanence, reusability, and impact of research software.”
Recommendation 11: “Funders should explicitly consider the environmental and social impact of the use of research software.”
Recommendation 12: “Funders should explicitly recognise that diversity, equity and inclusivity are significant factors in making research software sustainable.”

The Declaration text is available in full on Zenodo:

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Cite as:

Research Software Alliance. (2024). Amsterdam Declaration on Funding Research Software Sustainability (1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13735888

Contributors

The Declaration is the product of the collective effort from many people, representing various organisations across the globe. You can find a list of contributing organisations and individuals in this document.

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