Resources

Invisible Architects: Institutionalizing Support for Open Source Software
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2025 Highlights

Nearly every research breakthrough at a university depends on countless lines of code. However, academic institutions often do not provide the necessary support, resources, incentives, or recognition for the scientists and engineers who develop and maintain that code. Campuses across the U.S. are institutionalizing support for open-source software — and for the researchers who work tirelessly to develop and maintain it.

Operating Open Source Program Offices at the System Level
A Case Study of the University of California and University of Texas System-Wide OSPO Projects

Thanks to funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, several US universities have now founded Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) across the past half decade.[1] In the past two years, these efforts have expanded. In spring 2024, the University of California (UC) system launched the UC Open Source Program Office (OSPO) network, building on the work of the OSPO at the Santa Cruz campus.[2] In summer 2025, the University of Texas (UT) system was also awarded a grant by the Sloan Foundation to scope a model for a system-wide OSPO, following the one established at UT Austin.[3] By operating at the system level, the UC and UT OSPOs aim to further embody principles of openness and more widely and effectively enable open source work, by making resources and expertise more scalable as well as establishing a framework to facilitate community-building and cross-institution collaboration. Read more of this case study prepared by Claire Baytas, Dylan Ruediger at Ithaka S+R.