Mission of NumFOCUS - NumFOCUS

The mission of NumFOCUS is to promote open practices in research, data, and scientific computing by serving as a fiscal sponsor for open source projects and organizing community-driven educational programs.
NumFOCUS is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States.
NumFOCUS envisions an inclusive scientific and research community that utilizes actively supported open source software to make impactful discoveries for a better world.
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Scientific software is a fundamental component of modern research and engineering. The complex calculations and sophisticated analyses made possible by advances in data management and software create new opportunities for discovery and innovation.
“Open source” software — meaning software that anyone may use, inspect, modify, and redistribute — is increasingly the standard in academic research because it promotes accessibility and reproducibility.
Open source software also provides significant benefits for industry and business, allowing for-profit companies to enjoy the efficiencies of freely available, functional public code rather than pay to develop software from scratch. In effect, open-source acts as a shared pool of public research and development (R&D) that companies can use directly and leverage to build solutions.
NumFOCUS connects the community with expertise from knowledgeable and trusted sources.
NumFOCUS provides a stable, independent, and professional home for the open source projects powering contemporary scientific inquiry and business processes. We aim to ensure that funding and resources are available to sustain projects in the scientific data stack over the long haul.
Learn more about our Fiscal Sponsorship Program.
Our first Treasurer, Anthony Scopatz, came up with the name “NumFOCUS” as an abbreviation for “Numerical Foundation for Open Code and Useable Science.” (This is why you will sometimes see us referred to as “NumFOCUS Foundation.”) While officially the NumFOCUS name isn’t an abbreviation for anything, our mission supports open code as the foundation for useable and reproducible science—in other words, Open Code = Better Science.
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