Building a window into the Software Heritage Cathedral

Open-source software is a foundational part of the research ecosystem, yet institutions often lack visibility into the software they produce and use, who maintains it, and how it contributes to their impact. This presentation introduces OSPO-Radar, a Software Heritage project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which provides research institutions, OSPOs, funders, and infrastructures with tools to manage, document, and share their open-source work.

OSPO-Radar acts as the missing layer between institutions and the Software Heritage universal source code archive, addressing both the fragmentation of the current landscape and the long-term preservation of research software.

In this short pitch, the current status (a two-year effort), and the collaboration model inviting co-design partners, pilot institutions, advisory members, and open-source contributors. Mutualisation across interoperable ecosystems is positioned as key to the sustainable recognition and preservation of research software.