What Software Sustainability Institute does

The Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) is a UK non-profit organisation established in 2010 and hosted by the University of Edinburgh (with staff based at EPCC). It is the first organisation in the world dedicated to improving the quality and sustainability of software used in research, serving researchers, Research Software Engineers (RSEs), funders, and policy makers across the UK academic ecosystem and internationally.

SSI's core offerings span consultancy, training, community-building, and grant programmes. The Online Sustainability Evaluation is a free self-assessment tool, and the Research Software Healthchecks is an expert consultancy service evaluating software projects from beginners to advanced users. The Fellowship Programme provides a £4,000 flexible support package over 15 months alongside mentorship; the Institute has supported 244+ Fellows to date. Flagship events include the annual Collaborations Workshop (CW11–CW26, an unconference running since 2011) and Research Software Camps (multi-language training workshops). SSI is the official UK coordinating partner for The Carpentries and the originator of the Research Software Engineer career concept (2012), which led to the formation of the Society of Research Software Engineering. Additional programmes include the Research Software Maintenance Fund, Green DiSC (environmental sustainability of software), and Social Sciences Research Software.

The business model is grant-funded rather than commercial. SSI is primarily resourced through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and affiliated research councils such as EPSRC, supplemented by event sponsorships from organisations including The Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft, GitHub, Overleaf, and Figshare. Core services (evaluation tool, training, consultancy) are offered free to users, with the Fellowship stipends acting as programmatic grants disbursed to researchers rather than subscription revenue. Pricing on the Fellowship is structured as a fixed financial support package rather than a traditional SaaS or licence fee, consistent with its non-profit, mission-driven operating model.

Name

Software Sustainability Institute

Legal name

Software Sustainability Institute

Website

https://software.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Software Sustainability Institute (SSI), founded in 2010 and hosted by the University of Edinburgh, is the world's first organisation dedicated to improving research software. It provides fellowship grants, training, consultancy, and community programmes for UK and global researchers and Research Software Engineers, funded primarily through UK Research and Innovation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Software Sustainability Consulting

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (54162), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Other Computer Related Services (541519)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Software Development (Programming, Frameworks, Dev Tools) (EDABAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sustainability & ESG Consulting (BPAHACAK)

Keywords

• Research software consultancy
• Software sustainability training
• Research fellowship programmes
• Scientific coding workshops
• Open source community

Headquarters

HQ city

Edinburgh

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Institutional/Government Funding: SSI is hosted by the University of Edinburgh and funded primarily through UK research councils and government bodies. The institute receives operational funding from its funders which include EPSRC and other UKRI-affiliated councils.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Software Sustainability Institute provides consultancy, training, and community programmes that help researchers and research software engineers (RSEs) build more sustainable research software. Core offerings include the annual Fellowship Programme (with a £4,000 financial support package over 15 months plus mentorship), the free Online Sustainability Evaluation tool, Research Software Healthchecks consultancy, the annual Collaborations Workshop unconference, Research Software Camps training events, and Carpentry Workshops delivered in partnership with The Carpentries.

Product overview

The Software Sustainability Institute operates as a consultancy and community-building organization rather than a traditional software product company. Its core offerings consist of programmes and services focused on improving research software sustainability: the Fellowship Programme (providing £4,000 funding over 15 months plus mentorship to researchers and RSEs), the Online Sustainability Evaluation (free self-assessment tool), and Research Software Healthchecks (expert consultancy evaluations). SSI runs two flagship annual events: the Collaborations Workshop (CW11-CW26, a three-day unconference since 2011) and Research Software Camps (language-diverse training workshops). It also delivers Carpentry workshops in partnership with The Carpentries. Additional programmes include the Research Software Maintenance Fund, Green DiSC (environmental sustainability), Social Sciences Research Software, and Research and Policy initiatives. The Institute is the first organization dedicated to improving software in research, helping people build better and more sustainable software to enable world-class research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fellowship Programme Yearly programme that awards a £4,000 financial support package over 15 months, networking, and professional guidance to researchers, research software engineers, and industry staff who want to improve software practices in their domains, including an SSI Fellows Mentorship component.
• Online Sustainability Evaluation Free, short online evaluation tool that assesses how sustainable a research software project is and helps projects identify areas for improvement.
• Research Software Healthchecks Consultancy and guidance service available to research software projects looking to improve the sustainability of their software, evaluating projects from beginners to experts and providing tailored recommendations.
• Collaborations Workshop Annual three-day unconference bringing together researchers, software developers, managers, funders, and policy makers to explore important ideas in software and research and to plant seeds of interdisciplinary collaborations.
• Research Software Camps Annual training events that teach research software skills in multiple languages, including workshops in R (Spanish), Python (Italian), and Git (Ukrainian), coordinated with The Carpentries framework.
• Carpentry Workshops Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry workshops organised and run in partnership with The Carpentries, including instructor training and community nurture activities across the UK.
• Research Software Maintenance Fund Funding programme that supports the maintenance and sustainability of research software projects, helping ensure continuity of important scientific codebases.
• Green DiSC Programme focused on the environmental sustainability of research software, addressing the carbon footprint of software and hardware used in research.
• Social Sciences Research Software Programme Programme focused on software sustainability practices specific to social sciences research communities, adapting broader SSI principles to that domain.
• Research and Policy Programme Programme that works with collaborators to develop policies that better recognise and support software in research, influencing funding and recognition frameworks.

Quantifiable outcome

• 260+ successful collaborations in 30+ countries
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered major, supporting and core.

• The Alan Turing InstitutemajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2023Platinum sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2023 (CW23). The Alan Turing Institute is the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence.
• OverleafmajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2018Platinum sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2018 (CW18). Overleaf is an online LaTeX editor used by researchers.
• FigsharemajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2018Platinum sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2018 (CW18). Figshare is a repository for research data.
• MicrosoftmajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2017Platinum sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2017 (CW17). Microsoft supports research software through various research computing initiatives.
• Advanced Research Computing - University of LeedssupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2017Platinum sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2017 (CW17). Provides research computing infrastructure support.
• GitHubmajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2015Sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2015 (CW15) and 2014 (CW14). GitHub provides code hosting and collaboration tools essential for research software development.
• Microsoft ResearchmajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2014Sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2014 (CW14). Microsoft Research supports academic research and software initiatives.
• Digital Social ResearchsupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2012Gold sponsor of Collaborations Workshop 2012 (CW12) and 2013 (CW13). Digital Social Research maximises uptake of digital technologies across the social science community.
• The CarpentriescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSSI is an official partner of The Carpentries and coordinates activities in the UK. The institute helps organise and run workshops, and nurtures the UK community by bringing in and training new instructors and members.
• Society of Research Software EngineeringcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSSI actively contributed to the formation of the Society of Research Software Engineering and supports the RSE movement around the world.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Center for Open Science: The Center for Open Science builds open-source infrastructure and training (e.g., OSF, Preregistration) to improve research reproducibility. It mirrors SSI's mission of improving research software and practices, operates as a non-profit with grant funding, and serves overlapping academic and researcher audiences.
• The Carpentries: The Carpentries teaches foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide through community-led workshops. SSI is an official UK partner coordinating Carpentry workshops, instructor training, and community development — making it the most directly comparable peer in mission, methodology, and audience.
• Software Heritage: Software Heritage is a non-profit archive that collects, preserves, and makes available publicly available source code. It addresses long-term software sustainability from the preservation side, complementing SSI's focus on sustainable software practices for active research projects.
• NumFOCUS: NumFOCUS is a US-based non-profit that supports open-source scientific computing through fiscal sponsorship, community programs, and events for projects like NumPy and pandas. Like SSI, it sustains essential research-software infrastructure via community engagement and grants rather than commercial revenue.
• Society of Research Software Engineering: The Society of Research Software Engineering is the professional body for RSEs, actively incubated with SSI's support since 2012. It shares SSI's focus on advocacy, recognition, and community for research software professionals in the UK and beyond.
• Research Software Alliance: Research Software Alliance is an international community organization that advocates for and connects research software communities globally. It is closely aligned with SSI's mission of elevating and sustaining research software, and the two communities regularly overlap.

Broad incumbents

• Apereo Foundation: Apereo Foundation is a non-profit that supports open-source software for higher education and research, including Sakai, Opencast, and Karuta. It is a broad-incumbent peer in academic open-source software support, with a wider portfolio but overlapping mission of sustainable research and education software.
• Mozilla Foundation: Mozilla Foundation is a much larger non-profit that supports healthy internet ecosystems through grants, fellowships, and programmes like Mozilla Science (now discontinued but historically near-adjacent). It is a broad incumbent with similar funding model and focus on internet/technology training, though operating at far greater scale and scope.

Regional players

• Open Data Institute: The Open Data Institute is a UK-based non-profit that builds data capability, advocates open data policy, and runs training and fellowship programmes. It is comparable to SSI in being a UK-anchored research/data non-profit with fellowship-style programmes, but focuses on data culture rather than software sustainability.

Emerging players

• Open Bioinformatics Foundation: Open Bioinformatics Foundation is a non-profit supporting open-source bioinformatics projects (BioPerl, Biopython, etc.) and their communities. It overlaps with SSI in funding model and open-source research-software mission but focuses specifically on life-sciences bioinformatics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SoftwareSaved
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/softwaresaved
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/software-sustainability-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Software Sustainability Institute