The review of project proposals which significantly involve the (further) development of research software to address research questions usually also requires expert opinions that assess not only the scientific significance of the project but also the (further) development process and use of the research software. In addition to the usual review criteria, the following software-specific aspects should therefore be taken into account:

(1) Discipline-specific regulations

The (further) development and use of research software is characterised to a large extent by the different requirements of scientific disciplines. The review should therefore determine whether the project integrates the research topic in the discourse of the discipline and whether the software development fulfils the usual disciplinary standards and possible subsequent use cases. 

(2) Recognising the (further) development of research software as a scientific achievement

The development of research software requires not only in-depth subject-specific knowledge in order to be able to adequately implement the requirements of the subject in research software, but also a high level of expertise in the area of software development. When recognising scientific qualifications, the skills required for subject-specific scientific software development should therefore also be explicitly considered as independent scientific achievements. In particular, aspects of the discipline-specific development process should be taken into account such as requirements definition, functionality of the research software, operationalisability of a research method, etc., which go beyond programming knowledge and require a high level of scientific expertise.

(3) Project planning and work programme

The review should look at whether the (further) development of research software follows the standards of software development, is subject to the logic of the subject-specific research process, and also fulfils project-specific requirements. The objectives and work programme of a research project should be assessed accordingly according to whether the purpose and requirements definition of the research software development and the central steps and objectives of the development process are plausibly linked to the research project.