e-IRG Policy Paper on Scientific Software

With the successful establishment of a European e-Infrastructure ecosystem, the question of how to maintain and improve the scientific software base has become an urgent issue. This ecosystem has been built through recent leadership projects such as EGI and PRACE, combined with significant efforts on national levels. Many applications depend on legacy software that is difficult to maintain and difficult to run efficiently on current and future e-Infrastructures. There is a clear need for a coherent process and major efforts targeted towards enhancing the European software base for efficient use of European e-Infrastructures to increase the scientific output while ensuring the best value for money. The need for actions in this area has also been acknowledged globally and, e.g. in the US, significant funding programs targeting scientific software have been initiated.