Research Software Alliance
Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global non-profit that convenes funders, policymakers, researchers, publishers, and infrastructure providers to advance recognition of research software through standards, forums, task forces, and events.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersDistributed/Global
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Research Software Alliance does
Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global non-profit coordination organization founded in 2018 to advance recognition of research software as a critical component of scientific research. Operating as a fiscally sponsored project of Code for Science and Society, ReSA brings together funders, policymakers, researchers, publishers, and infrastructure providers through forums, task forces, events, and community-driven standards development. Its core outputs include the FAIR4RS Principles (2022), the ADORE.software declaration, a content library of position papers and vision reports, and the forthcoming International Research Software Conference (IRSC26). ReSA serves 18+ organizational members including major foundations (Sloan, Wellcome, Schmidt Sciences, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Moore) and engages a broader network of 60+ funders and 500+ individual contributors.
ReSA's business model is non-commercial and operates on diversified non-profit revenue streams: organizational membership dues, grants from foundations, event sponsorship (e.g., £3k–£10k per sponsor for IRSC26), donations, and task force support ($750–$7,000/month). The organization maintains a lean operational footprint with 6 part-time staff, including a Director and Program Manager. Its go-to-market is purely convening-based — building standards, policy recommendations, and community alignment rather than selling products. ReSA has influenced policy recommendations at multilateral bodies including OECD and UNESCO, and holds a formal MoU with the Research Data Alliance (May 2020) to coordinate cross-infrastructure governance.
ReSA's competitive positioning rests on its role as the default neutral coordination layer for the research software ecosystem. Its strategic plan (2025-2028) emphasizes continued expansion of membership, deeper funder engagement, international outreach (Europe, Latin America), and positioning on AI's impact on research software. The organization faces structural constraints typical of non-profit convening bodies: limited commercialization potential, reliance on a small number of large foundation grants, and the need to sustain voluntary community participation across diverse stakeholder groups.
Research Software Alliance firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Research Software Alliance
- Legal name
- Research Software Alliance
- Website
- https://researchsoft.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global non-profit that convenes funders, policymakers, researchers, publishers, and infrastructure providers to advance recognition of research software through standards, forums, task forces, and events.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Research Software Alliance industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Research Software Community Coordination
- NAICS
- Business Associations (813910)
- SIC
- Services-Membership Organizations (8600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Research Administration & Compliance (Sponsored Programs, IRB/REB) (EDADAKAH)
Keywords
Where Research Software Alliance is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Distributed/Global
Offices1 record
Markets served
Research Software Alliance business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Organisational Memberships: ReSA receives financial and in-kind support from Organisational Members including funders, research institutions, and industry partners. Membership provides organizations visibility within the global research software community and opportunity to influence policy and practice.
- Project Grants: ReSA receives grant funding from foundations and government agencies to support specific initiatives such as the FAIR4RS Working Group, community engagement, and strategic planning activities.
- Task Force Support: Organizations provide financial support (approximately USD$750/month for secretariat support or USD$7,000/month for content expertise support) to support task forces focused on specific topics aligned with their community interests.
- Event Sponsorship: The International Research Software Conference (IRSC26) and other events offer sponsorship packages at various tiers (Gold, Silver, Bronze) plus founding sponsor status, providing visibility and engagement opportunities for sponsors.
- Donations: Individual and organizational donations accepted through Donorbox platform with options for one-time, monthly, or quarterly contributions. Donations support community activities, task forces, networking, and resource development.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Task Force Secretariat Support |
| Subscription | Monthly | Task Force Content Expertise Support |
| Other | Annual | IRSC26 Gold Sponsorship |
| Other | Annual | IRSC26 Silver Sponsorship |
| Other | Annual | IRSC26 Bronze Sponsorship |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Research Software Alliance product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global non-profit coordination organization that convenes stakeholders across the research software ecosystem through seven stakeholder forums and multiple task forces. ReSA does not sell commercial products; instead it develops community-driven standards and policy frameworks (FAIR4RS Principles, ADORE.software declaration, research software authorship guidelines), advocates for the recognition of research software internationally, and hosts convening mechanisms including the biennial International Research Software Conference (IRSC). Its offerings are funded through organizational memberships, grants, donations, and event sponsorship.
Product overview
Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global coordination organization rather than a product company. It operates a network of seven forums (Community Leadership, Funders, Infrastructure, Policy, Metascience, Publishing, and Skills/Training) that bring together stakeholders across the research software ecosystem. ReSA convenes task forces addressing key challenges including FAIR4RS implementation, software authorship guidelines, institutional policies (PRO4RS), and code availability. The organization hosts the International Research Software Conference (IRSC) and develops frameworks like the FAIR4RS Principles and ADORE.software declaration. ReSA's activities span policy advocacy, community building, resource development, and international collaboration to advance recognition of research software as fundamental to research worldwide.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Research Software Funders Forum
Quantifiable outcome
- 90% of researchers acknowledge software as important for their research; 70% say their research would not be possible without software (UK survey of 1,000 researchers, 2014)
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Research Software Alliance
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Research Software Alliance technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature2 records
Research Software Alliance partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Digital Research Alliance of CanadacoreOne of six Founding Members of ReSA, providing resources to support ReSA's mission. The Alliance (formerly NDRIO) supports research data management, research software, and advanced research computing in Canada. Has provided in-kind support for Research Software Funders Forum working groups.
- Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)coreOne of six Founding Members of ReSA. ARDC is a nationally funded digital research infrastructure initiative providing Australian researchers with competitive advantage through data. ARDC staff contributed to FAIR4RS Principles development and provided in-kind support including Matthias Liffers supporting ReSA Taskforces.
- NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications)coreOne of six Founding Members of ReSA. NCSA at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provides leadership in advanced computing and data infrastructure, contributing expertise to research software coordination efforts.
- Netherlands eScience CentercoreOne of six Founding Members of ReSA. A national research organization mandated to pioneer software in direct collaboration with researchers. Involved in FAIR4RS development, GitHub software citation tool, and initiated NL-RSE network. Provided in-kind secretariat support for PRO4RS Working Group.
- Software Sustainability InstitutecoreOne of six Founding Members of ReSA. SSI conducts research, provides training, and advocates for better software practices in research. Contributed staff support including Neil Chue Hong to ReSA activities and co-hosted the inaugural International Research Software Conference (IRSC26) with ReSA and SSI.
- Research Data AlliancecoreRDA joined as Organisational Member in 2025, deepening collaboration between organizations. ReSA and RDA signed MoU in May 2020 to coordinate efforts in areas involving both research data and software. Joint initiatives include PRO4RS Working Group and FAIR4RS Working Group.
- Software HeritageminorSoftware Heritage is the largest public archive of software source code. Stefano Zacchiroli, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Software Heritage, is a keynote speaker at IRSC26. Software Heritage's OSPO-RADAR project was featured in ReSA newsletters.
- CHORUSminorCHORUS collaborated with ReSA on a webinar about embedding research software into scholarly publishing (June 2026). CHORUS maintains a Software Citation Policies Index providing assistance to authors and publishers.
- International Council of RSE AssociationscoreReSA serves as secretariat for the International Council of RSE Associations. The Council coordinates national and regional RSE associations worldwide and is represented in ReSA's Community Leadership Forum.
- Society of Research Software EngineeringcoreUK RSE Society co-hosts RSECon26, which is co-located with IRSC26 in September 2026. Society of RSE is a founding sponsor of IRSC26 and represents the UK research software engineering community.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Research Software Alliance competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Internet2: US non-profit community providing research and education networking infrastructure. A larger, longer-established coordinating body for a research-support ecosystem, with member-funded governance analogous to ReSA's organisational membership model.
- Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID): Non-profit providing persistent identifiers for researchers, addressing the contributor-recognition problem ReSA tackles for software authors. Operates a larger, more established community-governance and member-funded model addressing an adjacent attribution/recognition problem.
- European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): EU-funded initiative coordinating research data, services, and software infrastructure across Europe. Operates as a large-scale policy-and-infrastructure coordinator that intersects with ReSA's mission, especially via PRO4RS and FAIR4RS policy work.
- Center for Open Science (COS): US non-profit promoting open and reproducible science through infrastructure (OSF) and policy advocacy. A larger, more established coordinating body addressing overlapping open-science themes with ReSA, including reproducibility, FAIR principles, and code/data sharing.
Direct peers
- DataCite: Non-profit providing DOIs for research data and software; an Organisational Member of ReSA. Operates as research-infrastructure community coordinator with similar membership, governance, and forum-driven engagement models applied to citation rather than software sustainability.
- Research Data Alliance (RDA): Global non-profit community convening stakeholders around research data; ReSA's closest analogue in the research-data ecosystem and a formal MoU partner. Both coordinate international forums, working groups, and policy outputs, addressing adjacent (data vs. software) but structurally identical coordination problems.
- FORCE11: Community of researchers, librarians, and publishers shaping the future of research communication and e-scholarship. Co-convened the FAIR4RS Working Group with ReSA, operating a similar volunteer-and-task-force model around scholarly communication standards.
- Software Sustainability Institute (SSI): UK-based non-profit that cultivates better software practices in research through training, advocacy, and community building. A Founding Member of ReSA and co-host of IRSC26; the two organisations serve complementary but overlapping convening roles for the same community.
- EVERSE: European network for research software quality, validation, and sustainability. A newer coordinating initiative with overlapping scope on research software standards and community coordination, recently referenced in ReSA's newsletters as a peer community-builder.
Others
- Code for Science & Society (CS&S): US 501(c)(3) that fiscally sponsors ReSA and other public-interest technology projects. Comparable as a fiscal-sponsorship and open-source advocacy non-profit, though structurally an enabler rather than a coordinating peer.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Research Software Alliance social profiles
Digital presenceResearch Software Alliance financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Research Software Alliance leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Research Software Alliance funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Research Software Alliance M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Research Software Alliance
What does Research Software Alliance do?
Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is a global non-profit coordination organization that convenes stakeholders across the research software ecosystem through seven stakeholder forums and multiple task forces. ReSA does not sell commercial products; instead it develops community-driven standards and policy frameworks (FAIR4RS Principles, ADORE.software declaration, research software authorship guidelines), advocates for the recognition of research software internationally, and hosts convening mechanisms including the biennial International Research Software Conference (IRSC). Its offerings are funded through organizational memberships, grants, donations, and event sponsorship.
Is Research Software Alliance a public or private company?
Research Software Alliance is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Research Software Alliance founded?
Research Software Alliance was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Research Software Alliance based?
Research Software Alliance is headquartered in Distributed/Global.
How does Research Software Alliance make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Organisational Memberships are the primary driver. The others are project Grants, task Force Support, event Sponsorship and donations.
Who are Research Software Alliance's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Internet2, Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and Center for Open Science (COS). Direct peers are DataCite, Research Data Alliance (RDA), FORCE11, Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) and EVERSE. Code for Science & Society (CS&S) is listed as an others.
Does Research Software Alliance have an API?
No public API is recorded for Research Software Alliance.
What industry is Research Software Alliance in?
Research Software Alliance's product category is Research Software Community Coordination. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDADAKAH, Research Administration & Compliance (Sponsored Programs, IRB/REB). Its NAICS code is 813910 and its SIC code is 8600.