Dear RSEs,

2020 has been quite a year so congratulations for making it to the end! This year has certainly demonstrated that RSE-AUNZ is a strong and resilient community. While everyone probably had some initial jitters, we all settled into our new ways of working and collaborating.

From the RSE-AUNZ community perspective, we organised a few well-attended events.

• We started the year with an in-person (different times!) RSE workshop at eResearch NZ 2020 where we had RSE’s discuss their career journeys.

• We held our first ever fully virtual NZ RSE conference, which was attended by 150 members of the community from Australia and New Zealand.

• Finally, at eResearch Australasia 2020 we lead two BoFs - RSE Impact Stories and Training for and by the RSE community, one oral presentation about the creation and identity of the RSE community, and a BoF on FAIR and Sustainable Research Software in collaboration with ReSA and ARDC.

The second RSE AUNZ steering committee elections were held this year, we currently have four casual positions open and if you are interested contact the Steering Committee at: [email protected]

As we go to a much-deserved break, please take the time to rest and come back refreshed in 2021. We plan to continue to build our community by providing more opportunity for RSEs to learn and share knowledge in the form of a webinar series and hopefully face-to-face events. We intend to continue to engage with national and international efforts that align with the RSE community interests.

If you have any suggestions or feedback to provide to the RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee, please email us [email protected].

Happy holidays to everyone. May all your (code)-bugs squash themselves!

Regards,

Nooriyah & Manodeep

(on behalf of the RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee)