What is NZRSE Conference?  

Within the research sector, there is a growing number of people who combine expertise in programming with an intricate understanding of research. Although this combination of skills is extremely valuable, these people lack a formal place in the academic system. This means there is no easy way to recognise their contribution, to reward them, or to represent their views.  

A community-driven event 

In June 2020, NeSI decided to rebrand its successful Science Coding Conference to be named the NZ Research Software Engineers (RSE) Conference. Motivation for the change is two-fold:

• to include people from all research communities who work on the cusp of technical and research domains, and
   
• to more fully align with the goals of the Australia / New Zealand RSE community. 

Initiated in the UK, the RSE movement is a global phenomena with many associations now set-up around the world. In line with that global trend, New Zealand’s community of research software users and developers has steadily grown, with more roles and numbers of people at the intersection of software and research.

The tradition continues

Community members have told us they appreciate the technical nature of our past Science Coding and Research Software Engineering Conference programmes, where presentations dive into the details of implementation. They’ve also said they value being able to share lessons learned, benefits, and challenges of different approaches, practices, tools, and technologies. We also view this event as one of the few opportunities for building collegiality and networking between people in similar technical or niche roles. 

For more information about who typically attends this event, visit our Who should attend page.