Building diverse and inclusive RSE communities

Outline

• Who are we and why are we talking about this (~3 mins)
• Why EDIA matters (~5 mins)
• Challenges and (towards) solutions (~12 mins)
• Key takeaways (~5 mins)
• Q&A (~5 mins)

Who are we and why are we talking to you about EDIA?

Why EDIA matters for RSEs

Background

Diversity within the RSE community:

Gender¹:

RSEs	Male	Female	Prefer to self-describe
UK	71%	20%	3%
USA	78%	18%	2%
Germany	85%	13%	1%
World	80%	16%	1%

Figures rounded to nearest percentage point. Individual countries included where respondent count > 100. The 2022 RSE survey provides insufficient data to be able to report on other aspects of diversity.

In the 2018 International RSE survey, results for the UK showed 79.8% of respondents as male, 14.3% female and 0.5% selecting the “other” option².

For comparison, from 2021 UK Census results for England and Wales, males represented 52% and females of 48% of all those in employment ³.

¹ Data from the RSE International Survey 2022: S. Hettrick et al.  Sociodemography section, “RSE Survey 2022”, Version 2022-v0.9.0. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6884882.

² Data from the RSE International Survey 2018: O. Philippe et al., Public release for 2018 results, Version 2018-v.1.0.2. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2585783

³ Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 25 September 2023, ONS website, article, Diversity in the labour market, England, and Wales: Census 2021

Background: Skill and career pipelines

• Effective skill and career pipelines vital to build a more diverse community
• Enhancing technical skill development opportunities in schools and at undergraduate level (in traditionally non-computational domains)

But we can also make a difference within the existing community…

• “Domain mobility”¹ - shows precedent for moving between domains to undertake RSE work - demographics can differ between subject areas.

• Data (e.g. 2022 RSE international survey ²) shows many RSEs currently undertaking technical work in a different domain to that of their highest-level qualification.

¹ N. P. Chue Hong, J. Cohen, C. Jay, (2021). Understanding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Challenges Within the Research Software Community. In: Paszynski, M. et al.(eds) ICCS 2021. LNCS, vol 12747. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77980-1_30

² Data from the RSE International Survey 2022: S. Hettrick et al.  Sociodemography section, “RSE Survey 2022”, Version 2022-v0.9.0. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6884882.

Challenges and (towards) solutions

STEP-UP Research Technical Champions scheme

STEP-UP Champions cohort 1 kick-off, October 2025 - Image credit: Katie Buntic

The STEP-UP Research Technical Champions scheme supports a group of PhD students from the STEP-UP partner institutions to help their peers to develop new technical skills and address technical challenges in their research.

R Project Sprint

R contributors, University of Warwick, August 2023

R Project Sprints bring together a diverse group from around the world for three days to make substantive contributions to base R.

Key take-aways

• EDIA matters
• We can all play a role in creating diverse, inclusive and sustainable communities
• Opportunities exist to make a difference - don’t be frightened to engage!
• Community only happens when people create the spaces and folks participate

Links

• STEP-UP: https://step-up.ac.uk
  • STEP-UP Mentoring Scheme: https://step-up.ac.uk/mentoring/
  • STEP-UP Placement Scheme: https://step-up.ac.uk/placements/
• R Contributors: https://contributor.r-project.org
• rainbowR: https://rainbowr.org
• SSI Inclusive RSE:
  • Guidelines for making a difference
  • Digital Health Equities seminar recording

Papers

• N. P. Chue Hong, J. Cohen, C. Jay. Understanding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Challenges Within the Research Software Community (2021). ICCS 2021, LNCS vol 12747. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77980-1_30
• M. Tenquist et al., “Recommendations for Developing Effective Inclusivity Initiatives in Research Software Engineering” in Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 27, no. 02, pp. 35-44, April-June 2025. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2025.3539076.

Thank you

What are your questions?

JC acknowledges support for the STEP-UP project under UKRI EPSRC grant EP/Y530608/1.

EK acknowledges support for the R Project Sprint under UKRI EPSRC grant EP/V052128/1.