S³ School — Sustainable Scientific Software School, 14 – 21 January 2026
The S³ School is a one-week intensive training program teaching modern, sustainable coding practices for scientific software. It empowers researchers, scientists, and RSEs to build open, reproducible, and high-quality software. It will take place at LAPP in Annecy from 14 to 21 January 2026.
The goal of the school is to empower researchers, scientists, and Research Software Engineers (RSEs) with the skills to build sustainable, open, and reproducible research software following recognized best practices.
Registration is open until 14 November 2025.
Why participate?
- Build better research software: apply FAIR principles to ensure your code is reusable and reproducible.
- Learn by doing: hands-on training in Python, Git, testing, CI/CD, packaging, and documentation.
- Boost your impact: improve the quality, performance, and longevity of your research software.
- Go open-source: package and publish your projects following community standards.
- Grow your network: connect with an international community of researchers and RSEs committed to Open Science.
Learning objectives
By the end of the school, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the key aspects of software quality — maintainability, reproducibility, performance, and security — and understand their significance in scientific research.
- Describe and apply best practices across the different phases of a software development lifecycle.
Set up a professional development environment using modern tools such as an IDE, virtual environments, Git, and effective version control workflows.
Develop sustainable Python research software by implementing unit tests, continuous integration (CI), and static code analysis tools.
Apply the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) to research software development and dissemination.
Package, document, and publish research software following open-source standards, including Python packaging, containerization (Docker/Singularity), metadata publication, and best practices for sharing code.
Who should attend?
Postgraduate students, early-career researchers, and junior RSEs at the start of their research, or software development projects.
Researchers and scientists who regularly code, particularly those working in collaborative environments, and who want to improve their software development skills for open science and reproducible research.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Python and Unix command line.
Laptop with Unix terminal, Git installed, and GitHub account.
Key Information
- Duration: 1 week
- Participants: ~60
- Instructors: ~10
- Format: in-person lectures, workshops & hands-on sessions
- Location perks: Beautiful Annecy — between lake and mountains!
Fees:
- €588.50 for on-site participants.
- €245.30 for LAPP/LAPTH members.
- €588.50 for satellite site.
A unique learning experience
Students attending the school at LAPP will benefit from a unique learning experience, including:
- A guided visit of CERN
- A social dinner with the instructors and other students
- Accommodation and daily lunches are included in the fees
- Collaborative publication: all participants will contribute to a joint article at the end of the school.
- All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation
- Participants will receive recognition on Apicuron — The platform to credit and acknowledge scientific contributions, for both instructors and participants.
Context of the school
The S³ School is part of a broader European initiative to promote sustainable, high-quality research software within the framework of Open Science. This effort is supported by two key Horizon Europe projects: OSCARS and EVERSE.
OSCARS (Open Science Clusters’ Action for Research and Society) brings together five Science Clusters — covering environmental sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities, photon and neutron science, and astronomy and particle physics — to strengthen their role in the European Research Area by consolidating their past achievements into lasting interdisciplinary FAIR data services and working practices across scientific disciplines and communities, and by fostering the implementation of Open Science projects and services.
EVERSE (European Virtual Institute for Research Software Excellence) focuses on creating a framework for research software and code excellence. Collaboratively designed by research communities across the five EOSC Science Clusters and national Research Software Expertise Centres, EVERSE aims to build a European network dedicated to Research Software Quality. The project emphasizes community curation, quality assessment, and best practices, contributing to high-quality, sustainable, and reusable research software.