The topic of Better Scientific Software focuses on how to improve software development and software sustainability, along with improving developer productivity. Are there funding sources and programs that attempt to address building better scientific software?
Most researchers are familiar with funding agencies and particular funding programs that might be tapped to support their computational science or engineering research and development activities. However the majority of such programs focus on scientific results, most often in the form of peer-reviewed papers, and tend not to place a value on the software used to carry out that research.
However, some funding agencies are beginning to recognize the importance of software to computational science and engineering, and are developing funding programs, or modifying existing programs to place stronger emphasis on the software behind the research, and in some cases, will support grant proposals aimed at improving the software itself, its sustainability, or to help build a community around shared software.
Resources under this topic are pointers to funding agencies and programs that specifically target the software itself in some fashion, rather than the more common science/engineering R&D.
