Simon Hettrick
Director of Strategy
Professor Simon Hettrick works with stakeholders from across the research community to develop policies that support research software, the people who develop that software and the researchers who rely on it. Simon's research focuses on the use of software in the research community with the aim of understanding practices and demographics. In this role, he conducted the first study of software reliance in academia.
Simon is a passionate advocate for Research Software Engineers. He orchestrated a campaign to gain recognition for this community, which has grown from a handful of people in 2013 to a substantial international community numbering in the thousands. He was the founding chair of the UK's Association of Research Software Engineers and is now a Trustee of the Society of Research Software Engineering and its Treasurer. He was treasurer of the RSE conference from 2016-2019.
Simon is the Chair of the SSI's Hidden REF campaign. This is a national campaign that looks to recognise all research outputs and every role that makes research possible. In this role, Simon campaigns for a broader interpretation of how people contribute to the success of research. The Hidden REF campaign takes some credit for the inclusion of all roles, including non-academic roles, in the 2029 REF.
Simon is one of the Directors of the Southampton Research Software Group based at the University of Southampton. The group makes research software engineering expertise available to researchers across the University, provides training in software engineering and encourages collaboration and the sharing of knowledge between researchers who rely on software.
He is a member of the e-Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, a member of the UKRI talent panel college, the Projects Peer Review Panel for the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Digital & Data Infrastructures Focus Group for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Data Science Strategic advisory board for the Medical Research Council, the advisory panel for Artificial Intelligence and Informatics at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the steering committee for the Computational Science Centre for Research Communities, the steering committee for the DiRAC supercomputer, an Advisory Board member for the Society of Research Software Engineering, the MiTALENT project and the data-science journal, Patterns. He has a background in physics and patent law.
ORCID: 0000-0002-8876-7606
Field of expertise: Research software policy, software sustainability, FAIR4RS, software citation, open research, software licensing, project management, facilitation
