The aim of this task is to raise the Quality and Sustainability of research software by producing, promoting, measuring and adopting best practices applied to the software development life cycle. So far, efforts of this group have led to the publications of the four simple recommendations to encourage best practices in research software and the Top 10 metrics for life science software good practices.

Additionally, we’ve produced training material to promote and increase the awareness of these practices, and delivered several workshops across ELIXIR Nodes, targeting researchers and developers. Moreover, after capturing the community practices towards managing research software, this group produced a first draft of a software management plan template, connected to a concise description of the guidelines for open research software.

Next steps include activities towards alignment between the best practices and the wider Tools Platform ecosystem, the implementation of tools to support the application of these practices, expanding the training portfolio of the Software Best Practices including the Software Management Plan, and ultimately create a community around the sustainability, adoption and maintenance of the Software Management Plan effort going beyond the confines of the ELIXIR network, and engaging with relevant initiatives and groups around the globe (such as the Research Software Alliance, the Australia BioCommons, Force11 and the Research Data Alliance).