The partnership will work with software maintainers and biomedical researchers to identify gaps in support and guide future investment
The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy and Open Source for Science Fund will identify opportunities to sustain software used in biomedical research.
The US National Institutes of Health’s Office of Data Science Strategy has joined the Open Source for Science Fund as a Fund Supporter, working to identify where investment can help sustain the software behind biomedical research.
The collaboration will examine emerging trends, barriers to long-term maintenance and opportunities for targeted funding. It connects the NIH office with a Renaissance Philanthropy initiative that coordinates support for scientific software and the communities developing it.
The fund outlined the work on LinkedIn: “Together, through landscape analysis and community engagement, we will share insights on emerging trends, barriers to sustainability, and funding opportunities for research software maintainers.”
Supporting the people who keep scientific tools working
Biomedical researchers use open source software to analyze data, develop methods and share results. Keeping those tools useful requires ongoing work on development, maintenance and documentation, alongside support for contributors and users.
The partnership will seek input from software maintainers and researchers to understand where that work needs stronger support. It will also examine how tools can become easier to discover, access, combine with other software and reuse.
Ishwar Chandramouliswaran, Lead Program Director in the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy, said: “Open source software is essential to turning biomedical data into scientific knowledge. By more broadly fostering a community of researchers and maintainers who build and use research software, this collaboration will help identify opportunities to strengthen the technological foundation for robust and sustainable tools as well as improve the rigor of reproducible biomedical research.”
Reproducible research allows others to repeat an analysis using the same data and methods, helping them check findings and build on earlier work. Maintained software and clear documentation support that process.
The office leads implementation of the 2025–2030 NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science. Its priorities include software, computational methods and AI, as well as strengthening the research data science community.
Coordinating investment as scientific computing changes
The Open Source for Science Fund pools philanthropic, public-sector and industry resources into shared funding opportunities. Its approach covers technical development, community growth and governance, including how software projects make decisions and organize contributions.
The fund also supports tools adapting to data-intensive research and AI-driven science. That includes improving performance on computing hardware, supporting automated workflows and developing data formats suitable for training models.
Its team previously worked on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Essential Open Source Software for Science program, through which $58 million was deployed across six funding cycles, supporting more than 230 projects.
The NIH collaboration will help connect future investment decisions with the needs of people building and using research software.
Dario Taraborelli, Director of the Open Source for Science Fund, said: “The Office of Data Science Strategy has been a leading force in shaping open and reproducible computational practices in the life sciences. Together, we want to find where investment in open source software will make the biggest difference for scientists.”
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