Since the inception of the discipline at the NATO Software Engineering Conferences in 1968 and 1969, software engineering has primarily concentrated on business and embedded software, particularly in sectors like finance and automotive.

Research software that is designed and developed to facilitate research activities in various fields of science, humanities or engineering has for various reasons been overlooked by software engineering research. However, there is a growing recognition of research software as a crucial artifact. On the one hand, research software propels scientific advancements and plays a pivotal role in informing significant policy decisions, such as those related to climate action. On the other hand, it frequently serves as the foundation for software stacks in cutting-edge technologies like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and Digital Twin applications.

Software engineering within the context of research introduces unique challenges. These include the evolving nature of requirements as research progresses, the intricacies of diverse scientific domains, verification complexities, as well as constraints such as time-limited developer contracts and a lower level of software engineering education within research settings. Given the significance of research software, along with its distinct characteristics and its critical role in modern software engineering contexts, there is an increasing need for research in the field of research software engineering.

“Research Software Engineering Research” aims to comprehend and enhance the methods and processes of software development tailored to research contexts. Drawing from experiences and application cases at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), this talk will illuminate the landscape of research software engineering research and and elucidate its relevance to contemporary software engineering research.

Prof. Michael Felderer is the Director of the Institute for Software Technology at German Aerospace Center (DLR) and full professor at the University of Cologne. His fields of expertise and interest include software testing and quality assurance, security engineering, research software engineering as well as software engineering for AI, simulation, and quantum technologies. He was associate professor at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), guest professor at the Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden) as well as CEO of the academic spin-off QE LaB Business Services. His research is performed in close collaboration with companies and directed towards the development and evaluation of efficient and effective methods to improve the quality, trustworthiness and value of industrial software systems and processes. Michael Felderer has co-authored more than 150 publications and received 14 best paper awards. He is recognized by the Journal of Systems and Software (JSS) as one of the twenty most active established Software Engineering researchers world-wide in the period 2013 to 2020.