The Apereo Foundation and Ithaka S+R Awarded a $50,000 NSF Grant to Host Workshop on Advancing Sustainability for Open Source Research Software
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 6, 2025
[Beaverton, OR, USA] — The Apereo Foundation and Ithaka S+R are pleased to announce the receipt of a $50,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to convene an in-person, one-day workshop focused on advancing the sustainability of open source scientific research software. Tentatively scheduled for August 2025 in New York City, the workshop will bring together key stakeholders from well-established Open Source Software (OSS) communities, not-for-profit OSS foundations, higher education experts, researchers, and industry to explore practical and scalable sustainability strategies.
“The Apereo Foundation has long championed open source software as a cornerstone of innovation in higher education,” said Patrick Masson, Executive Director of the Apereo Foundation. “This workshop represents an important step toward ensuring that research-driven open source projects can thrive and continue to drive scientific discovery.”
Driving Sustainability for Research OSS
While the “open science” movement has a long history, new funding and government policies over the past decade have driven more use of open source software within the research enterprise. Through their research and engagement with the open science community and researchers, Apereo and Ithaka S+R have identified a strategic need to “translate” Open Source Software sustainability models, regularly used by software engineers, into practices that scientific researchers can easily adopt and apply.
“Our work at Ithaka S+R is rooted in helping academic communities address systemic challenges,” said Dr. Dylan Ruediger, Principal for the Research Enterprise at Ithaka S+R. “We are excited to collaborate with Apereo and the NSF to bridge the gap between OSS sustainability expertise and the research community's needs.”
In addition to the workshop discussions, which will equip attendees with core strategies and concrete practices for fostering sustainable OSS campus communities, the workshop's findings and collective results will be developed into a "Practical Guide for Sustaining OSS in the Research Enterprise." The guide will be released under a CC-BY Creative Commons license, making it accessible to researchers worldwide. For those interested in receiving updates on the release of the Guide, please subscribe to Apereo’s newsletter.
About the Organizations
The Apereo Foundation
The Apereo Foundation is the only global non-profit organization supporting and developing open source software for higher education institutions. Established in 2012, following the Sakai and Jasig Foundations merger, Apereo has facilitated the development and sustainability of more than 11 OSS projects, which are used at thousands of educational institutions worldwide. Members and supporters collaborate to raise awareness and adoption of open initiatives, extending and enhancing teaching and learning, research, and administrative computing. https://www.apereo.org/
Ithaka S+R
Ithaka S+R provides research and strategic guidance to help the academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, demographic, and technological change. With over 20 years of experience, Ithaka S+R has worked with more than 140 institutions to create and disseminate data that informs research and teaching practices. They are supporting research for the Sloan Foundation related to the impact of academic Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) in higher education.
Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA, a nonprofit with a mission to improve access to knowledge and education for people around the world.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant. No. 2512157. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Media Contact:
Michelle Hall
Apereo Communications Manager
michelle.hall@apereo.org