Chelsea McCracken
Researcher
Ithaka S+R
On August 8, 2025, Ithaka S+R and the Apereo Foundation hosted a one-day in-person workshop, “Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise” (SOSSRE), for 40 people, designed to bolster the ecosystem of open source software (OSS) developed for research purposes and to create holistic pathways for sustaining it within higher education. The workshop strengthened a sense of community between OSS for research and other OSS communities of practice; defined unique sustainability challenges of OSS for research; and identified potential methods for sustaining OSS for research within higher education. Our report, to be published in early December, documents the discussions that took place and summarizes the participants’ recommendations for improving OSS sustainability. The session will present new findings from the report. Key themes include: harnessing the overlap between the academic mission and OSS communities, funding OSS as infrastructure, and strengthening systems of coordination. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation (grant no. 2512157), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (grant no. G-2025-25223), and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/sustaining-open-source-software-in-the-research-enterprise
