Report on the 1st International Workshop on Software Engineering and Research Software (SERS 2026)

Research software is critical to academic research across disciplines, but the communities that develop research software and conduct software engineering research have had limited interaction. The first International Workshop on Software Engineering and Research Software (SERS 2026) brought together software engineering (SE) researchers and research software engineers (RSEs) at ICSE 2026 to explore opportunities and challenges at this intersection, and to foster closer collaboration between the two communities in the future. The workshop featured presentations on topics including research software development and evolution, RSE roles and terminology, research software quality and testing, reproducibility and sustainability, research software classification and comprehension, and emerging approaches involving AI and the contextual assessment of research software technology readiness. A dedicated breakout session enabled participants to discuss challenges in adopting AI methods for research software development, opportunities and conditions for successful research collaborations between SE researchers and RSEs, and mutual benefits in contextualizing SE methods for research software engineering. The workshop concluded with a plenary discussion on next steps to strengthen the emerging community and advance both research and practice at the intersection of software engineering and research software.