A realistic estimate for your proposal, software ready when your research needs it, and clear agreements about data, ownership and long-term maintenance.
You are welcome to get in touch before your proposal is awarded.
Whether you're still writing your proposal or the award is already in: there is always a logical starting point.
You're writing a proposal and need to budget the software costs. We think along about what's technically needed and provide a realistic cost estimate or quote you can include in the budget.
The funding is in. We translate the proposal into a concrete plan: which features are needed, what has priority, which data is processed and which requirements privacy, ethics and data management impose. Then follows a quote within the available budget.
We develop in steps and show working versions along the way, so your team and, where relevant, participants can test early. That way the software fits research practice and data collection can start on time.
On delivery you receive the source code, documentation and a working environment. We arrange open-source publication if required and agree who hosts and maintains the software after the project: your institution or CodeSprinter.
A research project with external funding has a fixed budget, a fixed duration and obligations towards the funder. Software developed within it has to be set up for that from the start.
The budget is set at the time of the award and the end date is fixed. So we work with a defined scope, priorities based on the MoSCoW method and a schedule that follows the phases of your research, such as the moment data collection has to start.
NWO and ZonMw ask for a data management plan after the award, and there is growing attention for a Software Management Plan. We provide the technical input: where data is stored, how access is arranged, which formats are used and how the software is made available.
Funders expect research outputs, and where possible software too, to be findable, accessible and reusable. We build under an open-source licence when required, with documentation and a version-controlled repository managed by your institution.
Research with participants touches on the GDPR, informed consent and sometimes medical-ethical review. Privacy by design, access control, pseudonymisation and logging are part of the design, so the software meets what your ethics committee and privacy officer ask for.
You have to account for expenses and follow your institution's procurement rules. Our quotes describe exactly what is delivered and what it costs, so the procurement department and project controller can work with them.
Research software often has to live on after the project: for follow-up research, replication or use in practice. We agree in advance how the software is handed over to your institution or remains hosted and maintained by CodeSprinter.
What's needed follows from your research question. These are applications that come up often in funded projects.
Mobile or web apps for participants to fill in questionnaires, record diary measurements or share sensor data, with secure storage and export to your analysis environment.
Environments where participants, researchers and partners each have their own role: enrolment, consent, communication and insight into progress.
Software for online experiments, randomised interventions or eHealth applications, including randomisation, logging and measurement moments.
Processing research data from multiple sources, integrations with existing systems and structured export for analysis and archiving.
Insight into ongoing data collection, quality checks and results for the project team, steering group or funder.
Applications for researchers, students or citizens to code, label or collect material, with checks on quality and provenance.
Every funder sets its own requirements for budgeting, accountability and open science. We know the context of these programmes and align scope, planning and delivery with them.
Open Competition, the Talent Programme (Veni, Vidi, Vici), the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) and the Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC). Think of data collection apps, experiment platforms and research environments that must be delivered, documented and made available within the project period.
Programmes in health research, prevention, care innovation and implementation. Often involving eHealth applications, intervention apps and participant portals where health data, informed consent and medical-ethical review play a role.
European projects with multiple partners, work packages and deliverables. Software used by a consortium calls for clear roles, permissions and agreements on data exchange between institutions in different countries.
RAAK projects and other practice-oriented research by universities of applied sciences, usually together with partners from the field. Software that works during the research and can keep being used by those partners afterwards.
Municipal or provincial grants, charitable foundations, health funds and internal seed funding from institutions. The approach is the same: a scope that fits the budget and a delivery you can account for.
CodeSprinter was founded to build software for organisations with a research-driven or social mission. Research projects are therefore not an exception in our work but the core of it. We know that a proposal is written before the software exists, that deadlines are tied to data collection and that a PhD candidate is often the day-to-day user.
You work directly with Yassine El Fahmi, founder and developer. No account manager in between and no team that changes halfway through your project. That keeps the lines short and ensures that context about your method, your participants and your data isn't lost.
Work packages, deliverables, DMP, ethics committee, consortium: we know the terms and the obligations that come with them.
If an existing tool or a simpler solution fits your budget better, we say so. Custom software is a means, not an end.
Maintainable code, tests and documentation, so the software can be carried forward by a next developer or your institution's IT department.
The software we develop for your project belongs to your institution. We put that in the quote. The source code lives in a repository you manage, for example on your university's GitHub or GitLab environment, and documentation is part of the delivery.
If your funder requires open availability, we choose a suitable open-source licence together and set up the repository so the software is citable and reusable by others. That way the software contributes to your project's open-science obligations instead of being a risk to them.
Questions researchers and project leaders often ask us before having software developed with research funding.
In many programmes, yes. Costs for having software developed usually fall under the material costs or project costs of your budget. What exactly is eligible differs per call and is set out in the call for proposals or the grant conditions. We provide a cost estimate or quote in the form your budget needs, so the item is well substantiated.
Yes. Based on your research design we discuss what the software has to do and produce a realistic estimate you can include in your proposal. An introductory meeting and a rough estimate are free of obligation. If the proposal isn't funded, you're not committed to anything.
That depends on your funder's requirements and the agreements within your institution or consortium. NWO and ZonMw encourage open science and increasingly ask for research software to be made openly and reusably available. We build so that open-source publication is possible and help choose a licence and set up the repository.
We agree on that in advance. The software can be handed over to your institution, including source code and documentation, so the IT department or research software engineers can maintain it. You can also leave hosting and technical maintenance with CodeSprinter, for example for the duration of a follow-up project or as long as the data has to remain available.
Privacy is part of the design: minimal data collection, pseudonymisation where possible, role-based access control, encrypted connections and logging. We coordinate with your privacy officer or data protection officer and provide the technical information needed for a DPIA or medical-ethical review.
Yes. Institutions have their own procurement rules, thresholds and conditions. We provide quotes and documentation in the form required and can supply an itemised breakdown if the procurement procedure asks for it.
Gladly. We align on technology choices, hosting, security requirements and handover, so the software fits what your institution already uses and supports. Existing facilities, such as an institutional repository, a storage environment or login via the institutional account, can be included in the design.
That depends on our schedule and the size of your project. Because the start of data collection is often decisive, we plan backwards from that moment together. Ideally, get in touch as soon as you know the funding is in, or already during the proposal, so we can reserve capacity.
Yes. We work for universities, universities of applied sciences, university medical centres, knowledge institutions and partnerships in which several organisations carry out a project together. For consortia we think along about roles, permissions and how partners use the software and the data.
Research changes along the way, that's normal. We work with priorities and a defined scope, so a change is always a deliberate choice: adding something means something else comes later or is dropped, or an additional agreement within the available budget. That keeps the project accountable to the funder.
Whether you're preparing a proposal or the award is already in: tell us what you want to research, what role software plays in it and what funding is involved. Then we'll look together at what's needed and what's realistic within your budget and timeline.
CodeSprinter builds software for research and societal impact. From first idea to daily use.
