Announcing the rOpenSci Champions Program!

Entrada en español

We are thrilled to launch our Champions Program pilot!

Why a Champions Program?

Champion programs are designed to identify, recognize, and reward passionate community members.

At rOpenSci, we recognize that there is a dismaying lack of diversity in the ecosystem of research software and open source communities. The R Community is no exception; its developers are overwhelmingly white, male, and from a handful of countries. This disappointing lack of diversity is potentially detrimental to the sustainability, utility and productivity of projects.

We also know that communities of practice can drive meaningful change. We understand the importance of supporting a diverse cohort of community leaders and contributors to all aspects of research software creation as they strive to transform our ecosystem for the better.

The rOpenSci Champion Program is part of a series of activities and projects we are carrying out to ensure our research software serves everyone in our communities, which means that it needs to be sustainable and open, and built by and for all groups.

That is why this program focuses on people who belong to groups that are historically and systematically excluded from the open software and research software communities and who are interested in contributing to rOpenSci and the broader open source and research software communities. We are looking for people that work in STEAM fields, from anywhere in the world, who already have development knowledge with the R language.

What is our Champions Program?

We have developed a 12-month-long program including cohort-based training, project development, and personal mentorship.

Champions will participate in a 6-week long cohort-based training on a) planning and facilitating engaging and inclusive workshops to support participants’ success, b) knowledge of various channels through which new members can engage in and contribute to rOpenSci and R projects, and c) technical skills in software development and review.

After training, Champions will develop their project, which can be one of these options:

• create a new package,
• go through the review process with an R package they already have developed,
• or be a reviewer for our peer review system.

Other Champions activities include options for delivering a talk, writing blog posts and teaching other community members. During this stage, Champions will receive personal and group mentorship through meetings with mentors, quarterly cohort calls, Community Manager support, and a dedicated channel on rOpenSci Slack workspace.

We will provide a $1000 (USD) stipend to the selected community champions. We are looking for six to nine Champions for this first pilot. We expect to co-create the rOpenSci Champions Program with the selected applicants and influence future editions with their experience and feedback.

We look forward to receiving many applications and are committed to directing non-selected applicants towards other ways in which they can contribute to rOpenSci. You can see all details on our Champions Program webpage.

How to apply?

Please, fill out the application form (this template shows the information we require) before Friday, Nov 7, 2022.

The application forms have to be filled in English.

Application timeline

Do you have any questions?

Please, contact our Community Manager by email.

We will have a Community Call on October 24 and a Coworking space on November 1 to help you with your application.

We look forward to meeting all of you passionate Champions out there :-D

Originally published in rOpenSci