Texas-OSPO Spring 2026 Newsletter
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Texas-OSPO News
The big news this quarter is the announcement of additional funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to further expand our efforts with Open Source Program Offices to support researchers across the University of Texas System. Texas-OSPO will work jointly with the UT System Research Cyberinfrastructure initiative to benefit researchers developing open source software projects through training, consultations, and associated events. It will also support OSPOs at our partner sites UT Austin, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, and UT San Antonio. Check out the new Website, and thank you to everyone who made this possible.
Please save the date for the first OSPOSIUM, a UT System-wide meeting to bring together researchers and students for talks, panels, and networking, along with a half day student-focused “Open to Work” workshop. It is taking place September 23-24, 2026 at UT Austin, immediately following the 2026 TACCSTER event. To broaden participation from across the UT System, we are offering student travel stipends, with applications due July 6, 2026.
We also invite you to participate in the Texas-OSPO pre-engagement survey. This 5 minute survey will help us establish a baseline understanding of participants’ knowledge, skills, and barriers to participation, while also informing future service offerings. Responses are due June 3, 2026.
Institutional News
The UT Austin-OSPO has launched a Catalog of Active Software Projects to list open source software collaborations and provide examples of open source software developed as part of research. We are currently expanding this Catalog to include software at other UT System campuses. Please submit your project for inclusion.
UT Austin students and faculty can participate in a Research Matching Service. Jointly with the Office of Career and Life Design, this program matches students to paid opportunities working with open source software research projects to provide real-world development experience. Interested students, submit your resume. Interested researchers, submit your project, or reach out to us at ospo@utlists.utexas.edu.
UT Dallas is pleased to begin identifying a local user group, visiting with units across campus, and initiating the work of our OSPO. We plan to partner closely with our computational support team (HPC@UTD) to provide access to research-specific training and support in this space. We can be contacted at opensource@utdallas.edu if you are interested in participating.
Related News and Opportunities
- The TACC Summer Institutes are open for registration and include courses in decision support, machine learning, and scientific visualization, among others
- The Open Source for Science Fund invites letters of intent from open source software projects that underpin AI and data-intensive research in the life sciences
- You can view the most recent open source software case study, Pauliceia 2.0, an Open Source Participatory Historical Mapping Platform
- The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2025 Highlights includes details about how campuses across the U.S. are institutionalizing support for open-source software
- The Ithaka S+R Foundation published a case study prepared by Claire Baytas, Dylan Ruediger on two system-level OSPOs, one in California and the Texas-OSPO
- Participate in a partner survey on Agentic AI Use by Scientists and Engineers in open source software development
If you’d like more information on any item in this update or have something you’d like to share with us, please reach out to ospo@utlists.utexas.edu.