================== AnthonyEvans | :=========================: MartinHerrerias Azcue | :==============: RowanGreen | :==============: SianBladon | :=========================: Stavrina Dimosthenous |
The R Consortium recently had the opportunity to interview Anthony Evans, Martin Herrerias Azcue, Rowan Green, Sian Bladon, and Stavrina Dimosthenous, organizers of the R User Group at the University of Manchester (R.U.M.). These leaders bring together a diverse community of students, researchers, and staff dedicated to advancing their skills in R programming. Their shared goal is to create an inclusive environment for learning and collaboration, which has driven the growth and success of the R.U.M. community.
Any techniques you recommend using for planning for or during the event? (Github, zoom, other) Can these techniques be used to make your group more inclusive to people that are unable to attend physical events in the future?
Tony: One technique we started using since COVID is hybrid teaching. We initially used Zoom, but then switched to Teams. This approach has been very inclusive because it allows people in distant locations, even in other countries, or those with long commutes to participate in our talks. In the past, everyone had to be physically on campus, which excluded those who lived further away. Now, with hybrid teaching, more people can join in, regardless of their location.
Martin: Yes, we’ve noticed that this might have been part of the issue. Our last talk was advertised as in-person only because it was meant to be hands-on, Carpentry-style training. That may have contributed to the low attendance. It definitely makes a difference—when we make an event hybrid, we tend to get a lot more participation.
Stavrina: We use conferencing software for all our meetings and make the invitation open to anyone outside the organization, we are lucky that we have access to meeting spaces that have suitable equipment for running hybrid meetings.
What trends do you currently see in R language and your industry? Any trends you see developing in the near future?
Tony: Researchers and academic programs are increasingly looking to include R and RStudio in their teaching and research for two main reasons. First, data regulations have become much stricter over the past couple of years, and with R, you have complete control over where your data is stored. You know it’s not in the cloud or being transferred to any external organization, which helps in meeting university data compliance standards.
The second reason for the shift towards R is that it’s free from licensing restrictions. With some other software, licensing can be highly restrictive—you might only be allowed to use it in certain countries, like the UK, or only on campus. R, on the other hand, offers a more inclusive environment for research, allowing access without these geographic or licensing limitations. This flexibility is a big part of why R is becoming so popular within the research community.
Martin: I completely agree. I couldn’t have put it better myself, but as Tony pointed out, R is becoming more and more popular. It’s gaining broader appeal and is now appreciated as a general scientific programming language rather than just a niche statistical tool. There’s a clear trend, as Tony described, toward open science and open source software, and R is becoming a significant part of that movement.
Rowan: One big trend is the use of LLMs/AI both for writing code in R, and as a tool executed through R. We were really lucky to have a former R users group member, Kamilla Kopec-Harding, return to give a talk on both of these perspectives earlier this year.
Sian: R remains relatively niche and widely recognized in bioinformatics, clinical trials, fintech, and marketing. However, Hadley Wickham and others’ contributions - through the tidyverse and packages like dplyr, ggplot2, and roxygen2 - have significantly broadened R’s appeal and impact in recent years. From an anecdotal perspective, about a decade ago, it was rare to see job postings requiring R skills. Today, although R may not have the same reach as languages like Python, job searches for R roles now yield far more opportunities than before.
How do I Join?
R Consortium’s R User Group and Small Conference Support Program (RUGS) provides grants to help R groups organize, share information, and support each other worldwide. We have given grants over the past four years, encompassing over 75,492 members in 39 countries. We would like to include you! Cash grants and meetup.com accounts are awarded based on the intended use of the funds and the amount of money available to distribute.