Too often, sustainability is framed in terms of clean code, reproducibility, funding and long-term maintenance. But sustainability is also about people: who gets to stay, who gets to lead, and who burns out or leaves before their potential is fully realised.

This talk invites us to look beyond technical best practices and consider the human infrastructure that truly sustains research software: the developers, contributors, maintainers, and collaborators who often work in the margins of recognition. We’ll explore how issues like burnout, impostor syndrome, and lack of psychological safety threaten not just individual wellbeing, but the continuity and health of the software ecosystems we care about.

Using real-world examples from both academic and open-source contexts, we’ll share practices and small culture shifts that have helped sustain people in research software roles.