RSAA26 - A research software community event for Asia and Australia
RSAA26 has concluded. Thank you to everyone who took part.
Do you want to learn what others are doing in research software in your domain and in other domains? Or do you want to discuss with others how you balance researcher needs with good software practices? Or maybe you are the only person working on research software in your group?
RSAA26 was the fifth online annual Research Software Asia Australia Conference, held from the 25th to the 28th of August 2026. This was a joint partnership between the RSE Asia Association and the RSE Association of Australia and New Zealand. The theme for this year was “Research Software Without Borders” and the hashtag was #RSAA26.
Partners
We would like to thank our Asia Spotlight Partner ACCESS-NRI for supporting us, as well as our Accessibility Partners the Society of RSE, Linux Australia, and the Software Sustainability Institute. We would also like to thank our Trust and Identity Partner Australian Access Federation (AAF), and our Supporting Partner ARDC for their contribution to our conference.
Program
Accessibility Fellowship Reports
Accessibility Fellow Report - An Thu Nguyen
Accessibility Fellow Report - Asmaa Rashad
Accessibility Fellow Report - Carlos Andres Olivera Caballero
Accessibility Fellow Report - Aishwarya Tulsi Vijay
All Accessibility Fellowship Reports
Why did someone go to RSAA26?
Some of the motivations for attending included:
- To talk about difficulties in career progression and lack of recognition with others who work on research software
- To share the interesting work you have done in research software
- To learn from others how to make their research software more visible
- To learn about how others create applications for researchers
- To learn about how others streamline and scale their research workflows
- To discuss with others how you balance researcher needs with good software practices
- To discuss with others how they make their research software easier to use
Important Dates (2026):
| Event | Opens on | Closes on | Notification of Result of Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call for Proposal | 20th March | 29th May | 7th July |
| Call for Accessibility Fellowship | 21st May | 26th June | TBA |
| Call for Micro-grants | 21st May | 10th July | Communicated on a rolling basis |
| Call for Scholarships | 21st May | 14th August | Communicated on a rolling basis |
| Call for Volunteer (Reviewer, Session Chair) | 20th March | Not Applicable | Communicated on a rolling basis |
| Event Registration (Early Bird, Scholarship, and Micro-grant) | 15th June | 10th July | Not Applicable |
| Event Registration (Standard) | 11th July | 14th August | Not Applicable |
What is a Research Software Engineer (RSE)?
Research Software Engineer is a broad term for people who combine programming and research skills that have trouble defining their role and value within academia. e.g
- researchers and academics who code,
- generalists who bring communities together across research and technical domains,
- people who help train researchers to improve their code on HPC and Cloud systems, and
- software engineers who work in the research domain.
Organising Committee Members
- Jyoti Bhogal
- Junran Lei
- Linda Erlina
- Keiran Rowell
- Sanchit Ghule
- Harsh Kalra
- Rowland Mosbergen
- Sandeep Kanabar
- Peiyu Wu
- Yifei Wang
- Deepika Kashyap
- Trish Radotic
- Saranjeet Kaur
- Amna Deakin
- Gregory Poole
- Seaumul Islam
- Pao Corrales
- Tyrone Chen
- Xiaoya (YaYa)
- Leon Nunes
- Tasfia Trahman
- Rania Aziz
- Xiangdi (Allie) Hu
Accessibility and Inclusivity
We were committed to creating a safe, accessible, and inclusive environment for all participants.
In 2022, Liz Hare provided a high-level accessibility report for the conference that we use as a benchmark for our performance.
RSAA26 offered scholarships for staff or students to participate for free, as well as 10 accessibility micro-grants valued at $50 AUD to help with internet, headphones, childcare etc.
We also ran the Accessibility Fellowship, which aims to encourage individuals with disabilities - such as those who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, have low vision, or have other disabilities - from within our community or adjacent communities to join RSAA26. Their involvement helped ensure we were held accountable for the accessibility of the event. You can read the fellows’ reports above.
Code of Conduct
The Code of Conduct is designed to provide all participants with community participation guidelines.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about RSAA26, please contact the organising committee at [email protected] by email.
Marketing materials
Our marketing materials for RSAA26 are here.
Previous RSEAA conferences
- Click here to view the 2025 conference.
- Click here to view the 2024 conference.
- Click here to view the 2023 conference.
- Click here to view the 2022 conference.
*The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.*