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TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT Registered Charity Number: 1182455
1 s t J u l y 2 0 2 3 - 3 0 t h J u n e 2 0 2 4
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ABOUT THE SOCIETY
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
The objective of the Society of Research Software Engineering is to advance the practice of research software engineering for the public benefit in such ways as the charity trustees consider appropriate.
The Society organises an annual conference and other events such as training, meetings, workshops or seminars. The Society may undertake or sponsor research related to Research Software Engineering and provide information, advocacy and advice in relation to Research Software and RSEs. It may also provide grants or other finance for activities that will help meet the Society’s aims.
All trustees have regard to the commission’s public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant. Specifically, trustees are made aware of the guidance as part of their induction and each trustee has been registered with the charity commission. The guidance is considered for any decisions made by the charity and there have been no deviations from the guidance to report.
The Society accepts contributions from volunteers, specifically this year's conference was led by the Society but relied heavily on volunteers in both the steering and organising committee.
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A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Welcome to our annual report from the Society of Research Software Engineering. We’ve been running as a charity for just over five years now and are continuing to grow. Our trustees, members and the community beyond continue to work hard to support the work of people doing research software engineering to enhance research through the use of software.
Last year, having seen the return of the in-person annual conference in Newcastle in September 2022 we were able to continue running it again this year, holding our first conference in Wales in Swansea in September 2023. This was only possible due to the immense hard work of a team of volunteers and it was great to be able to all meet together again.
We’ve made great strides towards improving how the community can formally get involved with the work of the Society with several special interest groups in the process of being created, opening up more of our working groups to the community and ring-fencing some of our funds for community members wanting to run events.
I’ve been a trustee of the Society for five years now, and acted as the President for three of those. Having been re-elected in 2021, I am now required by the constitution to step aside without the option of re-election. It has been an honour to serve the community all this time and I will continue to work with both the Society and initiatives more broadly in the future. Our ongoing trustees do fantastic work and I look forward to seeing how the Society continues to evolve and grow.
Before I sign off, I want to acknowledge the work from all the people in the community who have worked so hard, not just this year, but in some cases for over a decade on growing this now-thriving community. The dedication of people giving up their free time to support the work of research software engineering in order to improve education and research is immeasurable. From the trustees organising things at a high level, to the conference organising team, to local groups running events for their institutions, you all make the community as great as it is.
Thank you.
Matt Williams, President 22 July 2024
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GOVERNANCE
The governance work over the last year was both external-facing and internal. At the beginning of the reporting year, we welcomed seven new trustees elected by the community through a competitive election process. The election process was facilitated by the elections working group, who published blog posts and organised Q&A sessions with the community to encourage wider participation.
One of the newly elected trustees was Lyndsey Ballantyne, a new community manager working for the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI). In addition to the terms of engagement that were signed between the SSI and the Society in the last reporting period, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further formalise the donation of time from SSI to the Society. As part of this agreement, Lyndsey has been supporting the Society by helping to organise the annual conference and helping with other Society activities, in addition to being an elected trustee.
The Society also established a new working group focusing on facilitating the next iteration of the RSE Leaders network that provides a dedicated space for discussing various topics related to establishing or leading RSE teams, or other topics related to leadership in the RSE community. The working group works with the community to establish a more inclusive and welcoming environment for both established and emerging leaders.
Engaging with policy makers, the Governance team met with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to emphasise the role of research infrastructure professionals and their importance in the national computing strategy. When developing large scale computing facilities, it is necessary to support education and professional development of the people who will use them.
The Society also engaged with the wider ecosystem in supporting the role of research software engineers and of research software. As part of our engagement with funders, we provided a number of letters of support for the 2023 EPSRC Strategic Platforms call as well as other funding calls. Out of the successful projects, Society trustees are on steering boards of the STEP-UP and People in Data projects, representing the views of the RSE community. The Society is also a key contributor to the AHRC funded Data / Culture project, focussing on delivering a community roadmap for a national RSE capability with skills in arts & humanities. The Society also provided a response to the REF 2028 Consultation, further emphasising the importance of non-standard careers in academic research and the importance of alternative research outputs.
Internationally, the Governance subgroup is in conversation with the International RSE Council where we are representing the UK community. The Society also became a signatory of CoARA, a Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment. This is a large international initiative that aims to drive a reform towards qualitative research assessment together with acknowledging and promoting alternative career paths in academic research, such as research technical professionals. As a signatory, the Society highlights the role of research software engineers in research and the importance of alternative research outputs, such as research software.
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IN NUMBERS
728
Paid members in the Society as of June 2024.
9% 5800
Increase in members over 1 year (since June 2023)
Members of our Slack channel
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MEMBERSHIP
The Society officially launched paid membership five years ago, back in September 2019. Becoming a member of the Society offers an opportunity to be part of our work in gaining recognition and support for research software engineering. The £20 annual membership fee has remained unchanged for the last five years. We are pleased to report that the Society continues to grow its membership substantially, year on year. On 30th June 2024, our membership stood at 728 (twelve months ago it was 670), with the 700th member joining us on 15th May. At the time of writing (1st August 2024), membership stands at 742. Members can take advantage of membership benefits, such as the mentorship scheme, event grants, Dell UK discounts and a discount on the annual conference ticket fee.
M E M BE RS O F T HE S O C IE TY S IN C E IT S T A R TE D , W IT H T H I S R E P O R TI N G P E R IO D HI GH L I GH T E D IN G R E E N
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MEMBERSHIP (CONT.)
The membership subgroup currently consists of three trustees of the Society, and works helping members with membership platform issues, cancellations and other enquiries. This year we made a major change to our membership platform, migrating from White Fuse to WildApricot. One of the main drivers behind this long-planned transition was to improve self-service for members. We set up a cross-team working group to manage this process and worked together to migrate the data, communicate the changes to members and manage the financial handling behind the scenes. As part of this process, we also split the mailing list from the membership database. The migration was successfully completed on 13th March 2024. For a small number (less than 5%) of members, the transition wasn’t as smooth as we would have liked, with some challenges around emails, logging in and transitioning our payment options. We appreciate the community’s patience as we make this major change and the vast majority of cases are now resolved.
Our website provides key information for the RSE community, including events, policies and governance associated with the Society, community news, details of national (UK) and international RSE groups and organisations, and job listings for RSE career opportunities. Our Slack workspace provides an online space for the community to interact. There are over 5,800 members in over 120 public Slack channels. We have added a welcome message for new joiners to our Slack workspace which welcomes them, highlights some channels of interest and asks them to introduce themselves in the #introductions channel.
This year we made a major change to our membership platform, migrating from White Fuse to WildApricot.
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RSE CONFERENCE
In September 2023, the Society held its 7th annual RSE Conference at Swansea University. This was the first RSECon to be held outside of England and also our first hybrid RSECon, with 325 community members joining us in person and 40 joining us online to participate in a packed series of talks, panels and workshops.
We had keynotes on the impact of research software on society and the progress of RSE in the USA, 44 community contributed talks and panels across 4 parallel streams, and 10 interactive workshops and walkthroughs. We also had several community organised events running during the conference and as satellite events bookending it, spanning international and regional RSE organisations, the RSE leaders’ community, the high-performance computing community, the software skills training community, and the trusted research environment community. Recordings of all talks, panels, and walkthroughs from the conference have since been made freely available for all to watch online.
The Society would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Programme Chair Ed Bennett and the rest of the conference committee, who worked tirelessly to make the conference happen. Thanks also to our wonderful team of volunteers, who helped make the experience great for all of our attendees.
With a view to streamlining the organisation of the conference this year (2024), we have delegated the conference budget to the trustees on the Steering Group, along with a surplus target. We have also amended the conference committee structure, retiring the Society Advisor role in favour of a Steering Group Chair, who coordinates the Steering Group and feeds back to the rest of the trustees. Fliss Guest is taking on this role this year, alongside Dave Horsfall as Programme Chair.
Dave, along with the rest of the conference committee, has been working extremely hard to make RSECon24 as accessible and inclusive, celebratory, and outward facing as possible, and it is on track to be our biggest conference yet. The conference will again be run in hybrid format with all tracks being streamed to our online attendees as well as being recorded to be shared on our YouTube channel after the conference. As part of the programme this year, attendees can look forward to the Emerging Voice Plenary, which will provide two members of the community with the platform to share their story and vision for research software engineering; and the Community Discovery Day, which will spotlight the ongoing efforts to unite communities through Special Interest Groups and other community activities. We will also have several Mental Health First Aiders available for the duration of the conference.
All of this would not be possible without our Sponsorship team, comprising Marion Weinzierl, Aby Abraham and Martin O’Reilly, who together have brought in a fantastic amount of sponsorship, ensuring we are also on track to make a good surplus; this has enabled the committee to award more conference bursaries this year and the Society to explore further funded activities for the community independent of the conference.
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OUR EVENTS
The Society events committee continued to meet every two weeks to approve new event funding applications and to update on the plans for the 2024 and 2025 conferences. With improved support for the conference compared to last year, effort was now available to look at events in more detail.
Gillian Sinclair led on events which resulted in updates to the funding application form, provided new text for the event funding website page and better tracking and recording of funded events through an updated GitHub issue template. We also worked with Comms and Marketing to increase the visibility of the events fund. Thanks to the improved issue template more blog posts were secured from funded events resulting in greater visibility of both the event and the event fund on the RSE website.
This year we had a total of 10 funding requests (up from 7 last year) through the Events and Initiatives grant with 3 being rejected. The following events were funded:
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PRISM in-person conference
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5th Annual Workshop of the Research Software London Regional Research Software Community Research Software Engineer Asia & Australia 2024 Unconference (RSEAA24) Digital Humanities RSE Summer School The Turing Way Book Dash - Accessibility Working Group RSE Midlands 24
An application has been approved in principle for funding for mental health first aid training for the RSECon24. At the time of writing (July 2024) it is not yet decided if the funding will come from the Events and Initiative funding or any conference surplus that we may generate. This will be confirmed once the conference budget becomes clearer.
If you would like support from the Society for an event or initiative, then please contact the events team at events@society-rse.org or complete the application form.
We have also created a new application process for selecting the Programme Chair for future RSE Conferences. A call will go out after the current conference, asking chairs (and co-chairs) to put their names forward. Members of the events team will then interview the candidates and make a recommendation to the board of trustees for final approval. The first version of the procedure was tested on a small group of candidates this year but will go out to a longer, wider call to the whole community next year. The plan is to have the candidate in place up to 18 months before the conference, in order to begin the process of booking venues, appointing key committee members and generally spread the workload of the programme chair over a longer period.
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COMMUNICATIONS
The team met regularly to discuss and coordinate our Communications and Publicity strategies. Ongoing activities include our newsletter, which is sent to 1,400+ subscribers. We also send out regular tweets through our Twitter account, which has more than 7,100 followers, our new Mastodon account, which has 328 followers, and the Slack workspace, which has over 5,800 members in the #General channel. We also have a LinkedIn group, which we have made an effort to use more this year and which has had regular interactions, particularly on Conference announcements.
A Communications and Publicity working group was also established to encourage more participation by members of the Society. We have had useful interactions, particularly from former trustees who continue to help us with things like drafting and sending out the newsletter. Additionally, we hosted a number of Communications Forums, which were open to all members of the RSE Community to update and contribute to our communications strategy. This met a handful of times but did not generate significant interest. We plan to continue to run these events in the future, but may run them less frequently throughout the year.
Part of the reason for the working group/forums was to get community input on the continuing use of Slack. The Slack community remains active, but there continue to be concerns raised about the 90-day limit on messages. We cannot afford to pay for the premium version, as even the charity subscription costs $1 per user per month (and we have thousands of active users). We have been looking into how we can circumvent this, to make sure that important discussions remain accessible for longer. We’ve also looked into supplementing Slack with other technologies, accepting that Slack messages are transient and using alternatives (GitHub Issues and Discussions were considered) as an alternative for more permanent conversations. We do not believe that there is anything to be gained by moving (or fragmenting) the Slack community at this time, but we will continue to engage and look into alternatives/supplements.
NUMBER OF ACTI VE MEMBERS OF OUR SLACK WORKSPACE OVER THE YEARS SINCE ITS CREATION UNTI L JULY/AUGUST 2023 ( TAKEN FROM LAST YEAR’ S REPORT)
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NUMBER OF ACTI VE USERS BETWEEN 23RD JUNE 2023 AND 23RD JULY 2024
Above are the statistics from the Society’s Slack workspace. The first figure shows the weekly usage between 2016 and 2023. Unfortunately, we no longer have access to that data via Slack Analytics, so the second figure shows the active users over the last month. We have seen a continuous rise in the number of users joining and being active in the workspace.
We used the transition from White Fuse to Wild Apricot as an opportunity to change our mailing list providers. Following discussion with last year’s trustees, who looked into a range of options, the Communications and Publicity team decided to use SendGrid as the platform for the Society mailing list. So, all communications to members, including members-only benefits, are still managed by the membership platform (Wild Apricot). The mailing list for RSE Society News and Announcements is now hosted on SendGrid, and is open to everyone in the community. We plan to add additional mailing lists in the future, for example for news and announcements about the RSE Conference, but for now, the existing mailing list has been successfully transferred.
Once again, we considered leaving Twitter/X for one of the alternatives, but have decided to stay for the time being. The number of interactions to tweets and announcements has diminished since 2022, but we still receive a number of likes and retweets. It also remains a useful platform for engaging with corporate partners, including sponsors for the RSE Conference. We have continued to attract new followers and currently have 7,170 Followers, which is similar to last year.
We set up a new account on Mastodon (currently 235 followers) and have been making efforts to engage with the community there. All announcements are made on both platforms.
Additionally, we now have a Linktree page. This means that we can have links to all our sites and pages in one place, with a single link on our social media pages. That makes it easier for us to manage our network of sites and platforms, as well as giving us another place to highlight key updates and announcements to the community.
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MENTORING
The Society launched a mentoring scheme at the end of 2021 in conjunction with Coach Mentoring, with the first cohort of 25 mentor-mentee pairs completing the scheme in summer 2022. Support from the programme included a mentoring briefing, a mentoring support session for both mentors and mentees, plus a further 2 developmental sessions on other subjects for mentees. For 2022-2023 there were 18 mentor-mentee pairs (7 mentees could not be paired with a mentor), with 84% of the participants feeling that they were well matched but there was relatively low turnout in the final sessions organised by Coach Mentoring. Over the first two years we’ve had feedback from mentees that it has been useful having a sounding board to talk through decisions they were making; support transitioning into management roles; discussions and advice on career development; and advice on managing particular challenges they were experiencing in the workplace. Mentors also found the scheme very rewarding, with almost all mentors responding to the feedback survey saying they found the experience personally rewarding and a source of personal development for themselves.
For 2023-2024, we reached out to previous members of the scheme and had 29 mentor-mentee pairs being matched. As of July 2024, most of these pairs have had 1-3 meetings, though we are aware of 2 mentees that have not been responsive since the start of the scheme.
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EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND ACCESSIBILITY
The EDIA and Role Diversity working group has continued to be a community working group, with most members not coming from the board of trustees. We’ve made our slack channel, meetings, minutes, and Github project boards public to enable transparency and onboarding of new members. We’ve continued the work of the previous year’s working group in transcribing and publishing RSE stories, getting feedback from RSE leaders on EDIA within their groups.
This year we’ve tried to make the Slack channel an easier experience with an onboarding message sent to all new members in Slack. We’ve also helped in restructuring the Society of RSE website for easier engagement, and updated the EDIA and Role Diversity resources on our website. We’ve worked with the RSECon24 team, along with community members with an interest in accessibility to give feedback on the website and conference. We’ve also submitted a proposal on practical EDIA for RSECon24 with other community members.
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WEB AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The work of the web and infrastructure team has been focused on improving the reliability and security of our website and infrastructure this year. This includes the continuing updates of software across the platform, specifically our WordPress installation. We have also completed the planned update to the operating system version underneath. We have introduced a new policy on allowing collaborators access to parts of our infrastructure to remove previous ambiguity and improve security by tracking user access of medium to high risk services. Access reviews will then be performed in a new yearly infrastructure audit.
The job advert page on the website continues to see a lot of use, with 123 job adverts being placed during this reporting period. The usage is, however, trending down from 168 in the 2023-2022 period, and 212 in the 2022-2021 period.
We are continuing to offer support to SIGs and WGs, particularly providing help with the membership platform transition with the Membership group and improving our website structure and accessibility with the EDIA group.
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FINANCIAL SUMMARY The Society’s financial year ran from the 1st of July 2023 to the 30th of June 2024
Opening Balance (July 2023)
£1 24 , 629
Income Expenses
£120,055 £144,904
Closing Balance (June 2024)
£ 99,780
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IMPROVED FINANCIAL REPORTING
In prior years the Society has presented its annual accounts on a “cash basis”, where income and expenditure are accounted for in the financial year in which the money for each transaction has entered or left the Society’s bank or payment provider accounts. This year the Society has transitioned to presenting its accounts on an “accrual basis”, where income and expenditure are instead accounted for in the financial year in which the related activity took place.
This change to accrual accounting better reflects the income and expenditure related to the Society’s activities each financial year, and provides a more accurate view of our true financial position. The primary impact of this change is that we now show only the income and expenditure related to the conference that took place that financial year, rather than a mix of partial income and expenditure from both that year’s conference and the previous year’s conference. We also now show expenditure related to community grants we make in the financial year these are awarded, rather than the financial year in which they were paid out. Overall these changes make it much easier to both compare overall income and expenditure each year on a comparable basis and to see the overall financial position for each conference clearly.
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
The Society’s financial year ran from 1st July 2023 to 30th June 2024 (2023-24). Over this period we had a total income of £120,055 and a total expenditure of £144,904, resulting in a total £24,849 deficit for the year (all figures exclusive of VAT). This deficit was due to RSECon23 running at a loss, with a deficit of £15,447. This is the first conference to have made a loss and this was due to receiving significantly lower sponsorship and registration income than previous years, combined with additional costs for remote streaming to support a more accessible hybrid conference. Surplus from the annual conference is how the Society funds its activities throughout the year and so it is worrying to not have achieved a surplus for RSECon23. However, the Society has been able to fund its usual level of activity from operating funds built up from previous conference surpluses, which allow the Society to plan expenditure based on a rolling three year financial position.
In the financial year 2023-24 we received £14,780 in membership fees from our (approximately) 728 members and £105,210 from conference income for RSECon23 (all figures exclude VAT). Conference income came primarily from ticket sales (£74,210) and sponsorships (£31,000 total, comprising £10,000 from UKRI, £5,000 from EPCC, £5,000 from the Software Sustainability Institute, £5,000 from HDR-UK, £5,000 from Oracle, £500 from the Met Office and £500 from King’s Digital Lab), with a small amount from merchandise sales (£65).
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Our main outgoings were conference expenditure for RSECon23 of £120,615, community grants of £8,245 via the Events and Initiatives scheme, £3,375 for the Society’s mentoring scheme, £2,080 for infrastructure to support community events (Zoom and Slido), and £3,337 for the Society’s membership platform. The administrative costs for operating the Society that are not directly related to the delivery of the Society’s activities for the community came to £7,252 (web infrastructure, insurance, professional fees, bank fees and accounting fees). All figures exclude VAT. Note that our accountancy costs are significantly higher this year than last year due to the additional support needed to move to accruals based accounting.
FINANCIAL POSITION
As at 30 June 2024, the Society has £166,151 of sponsorship and registration income for next year’s conference (RSECon24) received in advance this financial year, much of which will need to be used to pay for the associated RSECon24 expenses, with any surplus remaining accounted for next financial year. Overall, this means our effective “working balance” at 30 June 2024 was £99,780.
Overall the Society is in good financial standing, with operating funds significantly in excess of our reserves policy. Having reviewed the financial position and planned activities, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, and continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.
FINANCIAL PLANNING
The annual conference costs significantly more to deliver each year than is received in registration income, even in the years the conference returns a healthy surplus. Each year, much of the sponsorship received goes directly to subsidising the costs of that year's conference, with the remainder retained by the Society to fund its non-conference activities. Across the RSECon16 to RSECon23 conferences we have achieved an average net surplus of £21,000 per conference. Combined with an average of £13,000 per year in membership income, this provides around £34,000 per year to fund the Society's non-conference activity in support of the community.
However, in any given year the net conference surplus has fluctuated significantly, ranging from a £45,000 net surplus for RSECon18 to a £15,000 net loss for RSECon23. Therefore, when making stable long-term spending plans, the Society bases these on the long run average conference surplus, rather than the surplus for any given year, adding to our operating funds in good years and drawing down on them in bad ones. This approach is what has allowed us to continue to fund Society activity at the same level this year as last year, despite RSECon23 making a loss and the Society running a significant overall deficit for the year. We anticipate the surplus from RSECon24 and future conferences will replenish our operating funds. However, we will continue to monitor our overall financial position and will adjust our expenditure to ensure that it remains sustainable, whatever surplus levels are achieved by future conferences.
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RESERVES POLICY
Financial reserves are money held back that would not normally be spent; the expectation is funds will always remain over the value of the total reserves needed. For finances to fall below this value would be an unusual and unexpected event. These reserve levels ensure that we retain enough funds to keep the Society running if financial difficulties arise.
Value of reserves required are estimated from annual costs and are calculated to cover the following:
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Conference seed funding
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Community grants and activity Society administration costs
The trustees have set the current value of reserves at £45,000 and keep this under review to ensure it remains appropriate as the Society’s activities and financial position evolve.
For reserve funds to be spent the following two criteria must be met:
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A majority vote by the trustees, AND
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At least two of the following trustees must vote in favour: president, vice-president, treasurer and vice-treasurer.
If the above conditions are met and any financial reserves are used, the Society shall consider itself to be in emergency mode where there is a higher than usual focus on bringing in income. During this period, the Society will generally avoid making any new spending commitments and will also review existing spending.
INCREASING INVESTMENT IN COMMUNITY ACTIVITY
Over the past year, the trustees have reinvested some of the accumulated surplus to increase the Society’s support for the community, increasing spending on grants made via the Events and Initiatives scheme, expanding the mentoring scheme from 18 to 29 mentee-mentor pairs, and increasing the number of conference bursaries we are providing for RSECon24. The Society has also invested in providing a remote conference experience for RSECon23 and RSECon24 to increase the accessibility and inclusion of the conference. This has been a significant additional expense and has only been partially offset by remote ticket sales, and the trustees will be reviewing options for a more sustainable remote conference offering for RSECon25 and beyond. The trustees are also looking at additional options for investing more of the Society’s accumulated surplus to further broaden the range of financial support it provides to the community and will share an update on this at the AGM this year.
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REGIONAL RSE GROUPS
This SIG aims to support the forming of regional groups, and to give advice and guidance for the running of such a group. The SIG members can be contacted under regional-sig@society-rse.org . Financial support can be requested through the SocRSE Events and Initiatives grant.
The following Regional Groups exist:
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Research Software London
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RSE Midlands
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RSE South
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N8 CIR RSE Community
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Northern England RSEs
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ScotRSE
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Community of Edinburgh Research Software Engineers
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Supercomputing Wales
The SIGs have been meeting quarterly, with an in-person meeting planned during RSECon24.
Ian Cottam stepped down in September 2023 and Lyndsey Ballantyne now represents the trustees on the SIG.
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Docusign Envelope ID: 90422FF5-9B27-4062-AC2A-2965D943E981 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
The Society is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), and stands alone, with no subsidiaries. It is governed by a constitution (available via https://society-rse.org/about/governance/) which defines its overall purpose and some key aspects of how it operates. The mission is for the public good, specifically to advance education particularly but not exclusively amongst research software engineers and/or to promote and advance research particularly but not exclusively in all aspects of research that relies on software engineering and to publish the useful results.
The Society is governed by a minimum of 5 trustees and a maximum of 14. The appointment of officers and roles are made by the trustees. No trustees receive payment, and no staff are employed. Decisions are made at a meeting of the charity trustees or by resolution in writing or electronic form agreed by a majority of all of the charity trustees. Powers and/or functions are delegated to committees and where done, specific terms and conditions are implemented.
At every AGM one third of trustees must retire from office. Trustee vacancies may be filled by the decision of the members at the annual general meeting, after an open nominations process. A charity trustee who has served for two consecutive terms may not be reappointed for a third consecutive term, but may be reappointed after an interval of at least two years. The members or the charity trustees may at any time decide to appoint a new charity trustee, e.g. in place of a charity trustee who has retired, provided the number of trustees does not exceed 14. Those appointed in this way must retire at the end of the next AGM.
SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
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REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
This is the fifth trustee annual report of the Society of Research Software Engineering since becoming incorporated in March 2019. The Society is registered charity number 1182455, C/O Dr Matthew Williams, 156 Shirehampton Road, Bristol, BS9 2EB. In accordance with our constitution, this reporting period has seen an election held in September 2023 in which seven new trustees were elected. Following that election the trustees appointed Matt Williams to continue as President.
The Trustees active at the end of the reporting period were:
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Matt Williams (President, elected Sep ‘19, re-elected Sep ‘21) David Beavan (Vice-president, elected Sep ‘22)
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Evelina Gabasova (Vice-president, elected Sep ‘22) Gillian Sinclair (Secretary, elected Sep ‘22)
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Robin Nandi (Treasurer, elected Sep ‘22)
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Martin O’Reilly (Vice-treasurer, elected Sep ‘22)
Community volunteers:
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Robert Chisholm (EDIA)
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Louise Brown (EDIA) Samantha Finnigan (EDIA) Samantha Ahern (EDIA)
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Christopher Woods (Regional SIG) Jeremy Cohen (Regional SIG)
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Lyndsey Ballantyne (elected Sep ‘23)
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Mary Chester-Kadwell (elected Sep ‘23)
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Fliss Guest (elected Sep ‘23)
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Twin Karmakharm (elected Sep ‘23)
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Stef Piatek (elected Sep ‘23)
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Peter Schmidt (elected Sep ‘23) Mike Simpson (elected Sep ‘23)
Trustees who completed their terms or stepped down during the reporting period were:
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Ian Cottam (Vice-Secretary, elected Sep ‘20, stepped down AGM Sep ‘23)
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Fergus Cooper (Treasurer, elected Sep ‘21, stepped down AGM Sep ‘23)
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Jamie Quinn (elected Sep ‘21, stepped down AGM Sep ‘23)
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Sam Mangham (elected Sep ‘21, stepped down Nov ‘23)
Current Trustees
Current board of trustees (April 2025):
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David Beavan (President, elected Sep ‘22)
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Fliss Guest (Vice-president, elected Sep ‘23)
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Mike Simpson (Vice-president, elected Sep ‘23)
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Gillian Sinclair (Secretary, elected Sep ‘22)
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Stef Piatek (Vice-secretary, elected Sep ‘23)
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Martin O’Reilly (Treasurer, elected Sep ‘22)
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Godwin Yeboah (Vice-treasurer, elected Sept ‘24)
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Abie Alexander-Ikwue (elected Sep ‘24)
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Samantha Ahern (elected Sep ‘24)
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Lyndsey Ballantyne (elected Sep ‘23)
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Mary Chester-Kadwell (elected Sep ‘23)
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Pip Grylls (elected Sep ‘24)
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Twin Karmakharm (elected Sep ‘23)
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Docusign Envelope ID: 90422FF5-9B27-4062-AC2A-2965D943E981 STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). The law applicable to charities in England & Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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observe the methods and principles of the Charities SORP (FRS 102);
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make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards (FRS 102) have been followed, subject to any material
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departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
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prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will
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continue in business.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Charity's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the Memorandum of Association. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Declarations
Approved by order of the members of the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:
David Beavan 30 April 2025
Martin O’Reilly 30 April 2025
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS' REPORT TO SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Independent examiner's report to the Trustees of Society of Research Software Engineering ('the Charity')
I report to the charity Trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Charity for the year ended 30 June 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the Trustees of the Charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the 2011 Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the Charity's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Independent examiner's statement
Your attention is drawn to the fact that the Charity has prepared the accounts in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has been withdrawn.
I understand that this has been done in order for the accounts to provide a true and fair view in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Practice effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the 2011 Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair' view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
This report is made solely to the Charity's Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. My work has been undertaken so that I might state to the Charity's Trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an Independent examiner's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity and the Charity's Trustees as a body, for my work or for this report.
Signed: Janice Matthews FCA
Dated: 30-Apr-2025
Menzies LLP
Chartered Accountants Magna House 18-32 London Road Staines-Upon-Thames TW18 4BP
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
| Note Income from: Donations and legacies 4 Charitable activities 5 Total income Expenditure on: Charitable activities 7 Total expenditure Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward Net movement in funds Total funds carried forward |
Unrestricted funds 2024 £ - 120,055 120,055 144,904 144,904 (24,849) 124,629 (24,849) 99,780 |
Total funds 2024 £ - 120,055 120,055 144,904 144,904 (24,849) 124,629 (24,849) 99,780 |
Total funds 2023 £ 1,018 145,741 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 146,759 | |||
| 114,956 | |||
| 114,956 | |||
| 31,803 | |||
| 92,826 31,803 |
|||
| 124,629 |
The Statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
The notes on pages 26 to 31 form part of these financial statements.
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 JUNE 2024
| Note Current assets Debtors 10 Cash at bank and in hand Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 11 Net current assets Total net assets Charity funds Unrestricted funds 12,13 Total funds |
40,734 269,309 310,043 (210,263) |
2024 £ 99,780 99,780 99,780 99,780 |
12,767 180,966 193,733 (69,104) |
2023 £ 124,629 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 124,629 | ||||
| 124,629 | ||||
| 124,629 |
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:
................................................
Martin O'Reilly Trustee
Date: 30-Apr-2025
The notes on pages 26 to 31 form part of these financial statements.
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
1. General information
The Society of Research Software Engineering is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation that has been registered with Charities Comission since 13 March 2019, registered number 1182455 . It's objective is to advance the practice of research software engineering. See page 19 for all reference and administrative details of the charity.
2. Accounting policies
2.1 Basis of preparation of financial statements
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.
The financial statements have been prepared to give a 'true and fair' view and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a 'true and fair' view. This departure has involved following the Charities SORP (FRS 102) published in October 2019 rather than the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1 April 2005 which has since been withdrawn.
Society of Research Software Engineering meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy.
2.2 Going concern
After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.
2.3 Income
All income is recognised once the Charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.
2.4 Expenditure
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity.
Expenditure on charitable activities is incurred on directly undertaking the activities which further the Charity's objectives, as well as any associated support costs.
Grants payable are charged in the year when the offer is made except in those cases where the offer is conditional, such grants being recognised as expenditure when the conditions attaching are fulfilled. Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the year end are noted as a commitment, but not accrued as expenditure.
2.5 Debtors
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
2. Accounting policies (continued)
2.6 Liabilities
Liabilities are recognised when there is an obligation at the Balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably.
2.7 Fund accounting
General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.
3. Transition to accruals accounts under FRS 102
The charity has transitioned from preparing its accounts on a receipts and payments basis to an accruals basis in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102). This change has been applied retrospectively, and the prior year's figures have been restated to reflect the accruals concept, to provide more accurate and clear financial information.
4. Income from donations and legacies
| Donations Total 2023 |
Unrestricted funds 2024 £ - 1,018 |
Total funds 2024 £ - 1,018 |
Total funds 2023 £ 1,018 |
|---|---|---|---|
5. Income from charitable activities
| Income from events and membership Total 2023 |
Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 120,055 145,741 |
Total funds 2024 £ 120,055 145,741 |
Total funds 2023 £ 145,741 |
|---|---|---|---|
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
6. Analysis of grants
| Community grants Total 2023 |
Grants to Institutions 2024 £ 8,245 7,390 |
Total funds 2024 £ 8,245 7,390 |
Total funds 2023 £ 7,390 |
|---|---|---|---|
7. Analysis of expenditure by activities
| Charitable activities Total 2023 |
Activities undertaken directly 2024 £ 129,407 101,833 |
Grant funding of activities 2024 £ 8,245 7,390 |
Support costs 2024 £ 7,252 5,733 |
Total funds 2024 £ 144,904 114,956 |
Total funds 2023 £ 114,956 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Analysis of support costs
| Administration infrastructure Website hosting & domains Travel, accomodation and subsistence Accountancy and independent examiners fees Insurance Subscriptions Sundry expenses Bank fees Realised currency gains Total 2023 |
Activities 2024 £ 543 378 186 4,850 480 124 - 440 251 7,252 5,733 |
Total funds 2024 £ 543 378 186 4,850 480 124 - 440 251 7,252 5,733 |
Total funds 2023 £ 540 399 240 3,200 468 - 23 806 57 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,733 | |||
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
8. Independent examiner's remuneration
The independent examiner's remuneration amounts to an independent examiner fee of £3,350 ( 2023 - £3,200 ).
9. Trustees' remuneration and expenses
During the year, no Trustees received any remuneration or other benefits (2023 - £NIL) .
During the year ended 30 June 2024, expenses relating to travel/subsistence and other events related costs totalling £ 2,046 were reimbursed or paid directly to 6 Trustees (2023 - £4,016 to 6 Trustees) .
10. Debtors
| Due within one year Trade debtors Prepayments and accrued income |
2024 £ 13,108 27,626 40,734 |
2023 £ 7,097 5,670 |
|---|---|---|
| 12,767 |
11. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
| Other creditors Trade creditors Other taxation and social security Accruals and deferred income Grants accrued Deferred income at 1 July 2023 Resources deferred during the year Amounts released from previous periods |
2024 £ 63 8,816 26,338 171,001 4,045 210,263 2024 £ 49,166 166,151 (49,166) 166,151 |
2023 £ - 2,188 9,527 52,366 5,023 |
|---|---|---|
| 69,104 | ||
| 2023 £ 37,010 49,166 (37,010) |
||
| 49,166 |
Deferred income relates to amounts received in advance of events taking place after the year end.
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
| 12. Statement of funds Statement of funds - current year Unrestricted funds General Funds - all funds Statement of funds - prior year Unrestricted funds General Funds - all funds 13. Summary of funds Summary of funds - current year General funds Summary of funds - prior year General funds |
Balance at 1 July 2023 £ 124,629 Balance at 1 July 2022 £ 92,826 Balance at 1 July 2023 £ 124,629 Balance at 1 July 2022 £ 92,826 |
Income £ 120,055 Income £ 146,759 Income £ 120,055 Income £ 146,759 |
Expenditure £ (144,904) Expenditure £ (114,956) Expenditure £ (144,904) Expenditure £ (114,956) |
Balance at 30 June 2024 £ 99,780 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at 30 June 2023 £ 124,629 |
||||
| Balance at 30 June 2024 £ 99,780 |
||||
| Balance at 30 June 2023 £ 124,629 |
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SOCIETY OF RESEARCH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
14. Analysis of net assets between funds
Analysis of net assets between funds - current period
| Current assets Creditors due within one year Total |
Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 310,043 (210,263) 99,780 |
Total funds 2024 £ 310,043 (210,263) |
|---|---|---|
| 99,780 |
Analysis of net assets between funds - prior period
| Current assets Creditors due within one year Total |
Endowment funds 2023 £ - (6,249) (6,249) |
Unrestricted funds 2023 £ 193,733 (62,855) 130,878 |
Total funds 2023 £ 193,733 (69,104) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 124,629 |
15. Related party transactions
The Charity has not entered into any related party transactions during the year, nor are there any outstanding balances owing between related parties and the Charity as at 30 June 2024.
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