Fostering Open Science in Latin America: CZI Awards Funds for Sustainable Research Software Development

Exciting News! The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has awarded rOpenSci a new grant to foster sustainable scientific software as a pillar of Open Science in Latin America by building capacity and community. With this $340K grant, we’re planning to launch a Spanish-language version of our Champions Program, along with other new initiatives to make sustainable software development more accessible to researchers across the region. Let’s dive into how this project will support Latin American scientists.

In open science, creating and maintaining good software has become essential for ensuring research quality and making findings reproducible and accessible. Latin America has been building a strong, open, collaborative research infrastructure since the 1950s, thanks to institutional open access policies. These policies have focused on open-access publications and research data, but software isn’t often seen as a crucial part of research. Most researchers don’t receive formal training in software development, and there’s no clear career path for those who focus on this area.¹ Further, as in academia throughout the world, software development isn’t often recognized as an academic accomplishment.

A Champions Program with Latin America focus

That’s where the rOpenSci Champions Program comes in. Launched in 2022 – with the support of CZI – it’s designed to help individuals from underrepresented groups get involved in open science, research software engineering, and the R programming community. Over 12 months, participants go through onboarding, training, mentorship, and various community-building activities. They develop projects like creating new R packages or participating in the rOpenSci peer review process, which teaches them best practices for developing and sharing research software and invites them to become part of an international community.

At the end of the program, participants get to choose how they want to give back to their own communities and institutions—whether it’s through outreach, mentoring, or promoting open science practices. By the time they finish, they’re fully integrated into rOpenSci’s community, which provides them with ongoing support and opportunities for growth.

Demand is especially high in Latin America, where sustainable software development is becoming more and more important. In just two years, the program received 227 applications from 55 countries, with 40% of applicants coming from Latin America. There’s also significant diversity in terms of gender and language, with over half the applicants identifying as women or gender minorities, and 42% with Spanish as their primary language.

Language barriers are a big challenge for Latin American researchers who want to engage in global open science². To break down these barriers, we plan to run a Spanish-language version of the Champions Program, as well as localizing rOpenSci’s materials into Portuguese.

We’re excited and proud that Spanish-speaking mentors and mentees from previous cohorts of the Champions Program will be joining as mentors and instructors for this language-specific program supporting future rOpenSci Champions.

We also plan to evaluate different models to sustain the Champions Program by conducting market research and stakeholder outreach during 2025. This will be followed by a pilot to gather feedback and refine the model as needed.

Look for an rOpenSci Champions Program open call for applications and the Localization Projects announcement in 2025.