The (further) development and use of research software requires specific framework conditions that cannot be realised in the planning of an individual research project or through project-based funding. The DFG would therefore like to call on scientific communities and research institutions to promote the adaptation and establishment of infrastructures that support the (further) development and use of research software and relate to the following areas:

(1) Research software engineering “as a service”

Software development can benefit considerably from the university’s own central service units. These service units can support researchers in project planning, carry out development tasks and open up publication channels. The DFG therefore encourages research institutions to identify requirements for local services and offerings and to implement coordinated measures to support software development projects.

(2) Change in research culture

Software development generally requires a high level of subject-specific expertise as well as transdisciplinary collaboration and communication. Research institutions should therefore strengthen structural development processes that support research conducted in groups and teams, community work, and open scientific communication. This can create an agile research software development environment that will also benefit individual research projects. In addition, training programmes should be provided to create a broad understanding and greater awareness within the scientific community of the possibilities available for researchers to use and develop research software in their own projects, thereby revealing its potential in connection with the research process and highlighting the fact that research software development itself can be recognised as a scientific achievement.

(3) Standards and good practices

In order to establish uniform standards for project development and review, the DFG encourages scientific societies and communities to reflect on their use of research software and to develop subject-specific regulations and good practices for research software or to subscribe to existing recommendations. A process of understanding and negotiation in the disciplines to identify centralised or community-relevant research software should also be initiated and actively implemented.

(4) Infrastructures for research software

Infrastructure facilities such as libraries, research data centres and computing and information centres can provide nationwide support for the professional use of research software. Infrastructural facilities should therefore further develop existing local solutions and develop new innovative offerings while at the same time focusing on the greatest possible interoperability and convergence of the developed offerings with a view to creating an overall structure. This should be accompanied by the establishment of a suitable distribution of tasks within the scientific infrastructures.