June 2026

Welcome everyone to the JuRSE newsletter for June!

JuRSE (Jülich Research Software Engineering) is a grassroots community for all FZJ scientists and students who code and anyone interested in research software. 

The purpose of this newsletter is to update you about JuRSE community initiatives at FZJ and some of the national and international activities in Research Software Engineering (RSE) and inspire you to get involved in the community.  Please feel free to forward this to any colleagues who may be interested in this topic and in joining the JuRSE Community. 

Quick ways you can get involved:

Join the RSE Rocketchat channel open to all FZJ staff
Join the national RSE Community on matrix hosted by the de-RSE Association.

JuRSE is now on Linkedin! Connect with us

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JuRSE  

We have relaunched  our JuRSE community survey to better understand the work, challenges and needs of our coding community at FZJ. Your voice matters!

Why should you participate?
- Help build better support systems for researchers who code
- Share your challenges to inform new initiatives and resources
- Contribute to the FZJ’s research software excellence
- Join a growing cross-centre community of practice

This survey takes only 10-15 minutes and your input will directly shape the resources, services and events we provide. Let’s build a stronger coding community together!

Take the survey here!

Our latest blogpost, written by Dr Robert Speck, is all about AI in research software engineering and asks us to think about the potential impact on our role. Read the article and then join us on the RSE rocketchat for the discussion.

Open Hours

The biggest pain point we talked about this month was the availability of funding for sustained software development as well as what resources exist to support you and do actual code work for you. 

We host Open Hours every Wednesday both in-person in the gegenüber lounge in the ZB and online. All are welcome to come and talk to us about anything. This is an opportunity to learn from each other and expand our collective knowledge.  Always exciting to see and help with your projects. 

Code of the Month

The JuRSE Team wants to shine a spotlight on the diverse and excellent research software that is being developed at Forschungszentrum Jülich. 

This month we are highlighting cuBNM, which was developed at the Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Brain and Behaviour. The cuBNM toolbox uses GPUs to efficiently run simulations of brain network models consisting of nodes which are connected through a connectome and fit them to empirical neuroimaging data through integrated optimisation algorithms.

To find out more go to the June Code of the Month.

Jobs at FZJ

We’re including some of the current vacancies that may be of interest. 

  • Mathematisch-technische:r Softwareentwickler:in (w/m/d) (IHE-4, Brainergy Park Jülich)    
    This position focuses on developing automation scripts, simulation-tool interfaces, and research data infrastructure to support process engineering and chemical hydrogen storage research. (posting closed)
  • Research Associate in the Field of Knowledge Engineering for Materials Science (IAS-9, Aachen)    
    This position focuses on semantic technologies, LLM-based information extraction, and knowledge engineering methods for materials science, with the goal of building FAIR and AI-ready research data infrastructures. (posting closed)

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HiRSE  

Events

  • 54th HiRSE Seminar (virtual) 
    On Thursday, 25th June  at 11:00 CEST, Sebastian Müller from Universität Potsdam  will join us at the HiRSE Seminar Series to talk about  “When you don’t know what to test for: Metamorphic Testing for Research Software”
    Find out more here!

Initiatives

  • Promoting Research Software: Made in Germany
    The HiRSE Code Promotion initiative aims to shine a spotlight on your work. 
    We're looking for research software created, extended and/or maintained by people working at German institutions to join our initiative. This is not meant exclusively, we of course welcome also software written by international teams, as long as there is a substantial contribution coming from Germany. 

    So what can you do? You provide us with the details of your software using our form and we'll create your promo slide that will be shown ahead of a HiRSE Seminar, during HiRSE event breaks and of course you can use it on your website or in a presentation. 

HiRSE is now on Linkedin! Connect with us

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National Initiatives   

  • HIDA mobility Program:   The HIDA Mobility Program enables short-term research stays (1- 3 months) for all Helmholtz doctoral researchers and postdocs (employed at or affiliated with a Helmholtz Center), whose work is linked to (applied) data and information sciences. Applications are now being accepted on an ongoing basis. 
  • HIFIS: Did you know that HIFIS has many great resources available including software engineering consulting services? To find out more here!
  • Helmholtz Research Software Directory:  The Research Software Directory is where you can promote and discover research software from Helmholtz centres. After recent updates to the directory, you can now nominate yourself for a spotlight on their website to showcase your research software and they've introduced some more functionality to make integration easier. Check out the details here!

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Events  

  • JuliaCon 2026
    JuliaCon Global 2026 will be an in-person conference held in  Mainz, Germany, 10-15 August 2026. JuliaCon will include talks from developers and researchers from industry and academia covering a wide range of topics such as biology, economics, data analytics, and software engineering best practices. For more go to:  https://juliacon.org/2026/
  • Swiss RSE Annual Conference 
    Join the Swiss Research Software Engineering (RSE) Annual Conference 2026, a full-day event bringing together RSEs from academia, research, and industry. The conference includes keynotes, presentations, and a poster/demo session, focusing on: RSE for Open Research Data (ORD) and Open Science, AI in Research Software Engineering & RSE Community (sharing experiences and building connections)
    The event will be held at the ETH Zurich (CAB Building) on  the 31 August 2026
    Registration details and call for proposals coming soon at https://rse.swiss/swiss_rse_day/
  • International Research Software Conference (IRSC) 
    The event focuses on advancing strategic coordination, sustainability, and cross-boundary collaboration in the research software community. It will promote global collaboration, share community experiences and best practices, and aim to influence funding, policy, and research priorities while highlighting leadership in related open science movements. The event will take place online and in-person on the  7th – 8 th of September in Sheffield, UK. To find out more go to:  https://www.researchsoft.org/irsc/
  • RSECon26
    The event provides a forum to share ideas, debate strategies, and develop collective visions for the future of Research Software Engineering. It will centre around two key themes: “RSEs as part of the research journey” and “Enhancing credit and reproducibility: research software quality, performance and evidence”.
    The event will be held in Sheffield, UK on the 9-11 September 2026 . 
    To find out more go to: https://rsecon26.society-rse.org/
  • SciCoCo.nrw 2026
    The SciCoCo.nrw covers all topics connected with computer-based research, spanning from Research Software Engineering (RSE), over Research Data Managemenent (RDM), Data Literacy (DL), and High-Performance Computing (HPC) to Artifical Intelligence (AI). 
    The event will be held at the IT Center, RWTH Aachen on the 21-23 September 2026.
    The Call for Contributions is open until the 15 June. 
    To find out more go to: https://events.hifis.net/event/3911/abstracts/
  • deRSE Collaborations Workshop & AI in RSE workshop 
    The workshop will take place from the 22 - 25 September in Göttingen. The event will feature interactive, collaborative formats which give participants room for discussions and provides place for collaborations. 
    To register go to: https://events.hifis.net/event/3249/overview
  • 2026 DASH / IHDEA Meeting 
    The DASH (Data Analysis and Software in Heliophysics) and IHDEA (International Heliophysics Data Environment Alliance) meetings bring together scientists and software developers working on data analysis, algorithms, community software, data systems, and standards across heliophysics - from the Sun to geospace and beyond. The event will be hostet by the Dublin Institute for advanced Studies (DIAS) in  Dublin, Ireland  on the 5-9 October. 
    For more see: https://dash.heliophysics.net/
  • USRSE’26
    USRSE’26 with the theme “Advancing Science in the Age of AI” will be held in  San Jose, California on 19-21 October 2026. The calls for proposals and reviewers are open now. 
    For more go to: https://us-rse.org/usrse26/

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Recommended Reading & Tools

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RSE Podcast Episodes

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Further Training Opportunities

HiDA Training courses

There are lots of courses available to you for free from Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy (HIDA) so check out what's available here.

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Training at FZJ:  

High-Performance Computing with Python (training course, online)

Instructors: Jan Meinke, Olav Zimmermann 
Dates:  15-19 June 2026, 09:00-13:00 each day 
Venue:  Online
Abstract: https://go.fzj.de/2026-hpc-python
Registration until 8 June 2026:  https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/296

GCS Industry Day 2026 – mit Supercomputern, Simulation und KI zum Innovationserfolg 

Organisers: JSC, Chambers of Commerce Aachen, Cologne and Middle Lower Rhine region 
Date: 17 June 2026, 11:30-17:30 
Venue: Zentralbibliothek of Forschungszentrum Jülich 
Abstract: https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/jsc/news/events/2026/gcs-industry-day-2026
Registration: https://web-eur.cvent.com/event/014a2ccd-6c0a-454f-b4dc-885d23245862/register

GPU Programming Part 2: Special and Advanced Topics (training course, online)

Instructors: Jan Meinke, Andreas Herten, Kaveh Haghighi-Mood, Jayesh Badwaik (JSC); Laura Morgenstern, Markus Hrywniak (NVIDIA) 
Dates:  29 June – 03 July 2026, 09:00-13:00 each day 
Venue:  Online
Abstract: https://go.fzj.de/2026-gpu-advanced
Registration until 22 June 2026:  https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/281/

Introduction to Cryogenics for Research Infrastructures (training course, on-site) 

Instructor: David Rabanus 
Dates:  29 June – 1 July 2026, 09:00-13:00 each day 
Venue:  JSC, building 16.3, Training Room 1, room 213a 
Abstract:  https://go.fzj.de/2026-introduction-to-cryogenics
Registration until 15 June 2026:  https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/322/

ESM User Forum 2026

Dates: 29-30 June 2026
Venue:  JSC, building 16.4, Rotunda 
Abstract:  https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/jsc/news/events/2026/esm-user-forum-2026
Registration until 22 June 2026:  https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/325/registrations/249/

Introduction to Parallel Programming with MPI and OpenMP (training course, on-site) 

Instructors: Ilya Zhukov, Jolanta Zjupa, Junxian Chew, Michael Knobloch, Jan Andre Reuter 
Dates:  10-14 August 2026, 09:00-16:30 each day 
Venue:  JSC, Ausbildungsraum 1, building 16.3, room 213a 
Abstract:  https://go.fzj.de/2026-mpi-intro-interm
Registration until 27 July 2026:  https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/291/registrations/221/

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That’s it for June! Send us any RSE content that you’d like in the newsletter and join us on the RSE Rocketchat channel! 

Best wishes,

Claire and the JuRSE team

Last Modified: 06.07.2026