Strategic Plan on The Carpentries

RFP: Consultancy support for the Open Science Coalition

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Five leading open science organisations – The Carpentries, OLS, rOpenSci, pyOpenSci, and PREreview – are seeking an external consultant or group to facilitate several activities over the second half of 2026. Selected consultants will continue the organisational alignment and collaboration work previously announced in late 2025.

This work has three strands:

Facilitation: co-ordinating between the five groups during the grant-writing period, possibly coordinating the grantwriter and governance facilitator as well.
Governance: Creating ways of working between the five organisations (Pitches by invitation only). This would occur during the grant-writing period and possibly after.
Grantwriting: to lead-author our multi-funder grant pitch. We expect that this grant will be pitched to multiple funders to co-fund, and may involve more than one phase, e.g. discovery phase, pilot phase, and implementation phase, over multiple years.

We would be willing to consider pitches that cover multiple roles at once.

The Carpentries Forms a Strategic Partnership with datocracy AI

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Two Organisations. One Bold Mission.

The future of AI must be shaped by people who understand it and have the skills to question it. Today, datocracy AI and The Carpentries are announcing a partnership that puts people at the very centre of the future of AI training and usage. We are proud to announce this collaboration, as a meeting of two organisations with deeply complementary missions, and a shared understanding that knowledge, when made accessible and equitable, is powerful.

Introducing the 2026-2027 Carpentries Board of Directors

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introducing the 2026–2027 Carpentries Board of Directors

We are excited to share an update that reflects both progress and possibility. The past year marked a major inflexion point for The Carpentries as we completed our transition to an independent non-profit and began operating with a new governance model. In the future, our Board of Directors will continue to work alongside the Core Team, community, and our partners to advance our mission and deliver on the strategic priorities outlined in our bridge 2026-2028 Strategic Plan.

Our 2026-2028 Bridge Strategic Plan is here

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introducing Our 2026–2028 Bridge Strategic Plan

As we begin a new chapter together as a community, we are excited to share The Carpentries Bridge Strategic Plan for 2026–2028. This plan reflects where we are now as an organisation, what we have learned over the past five years, and how we intend to move forward in alignment with our core values.

The next three years are a bridge. A bridge between our recent period of organisational change and the future we are building together. A bridge between sustaining what works and investing in what is needed next. And a bridge between global growth and deeper, more equitable engagement with communities around the world.

Cheers to a New Year of Learning, Collaboration, and Impact

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As we ring in the new year, I want to begin by saying thank you. Our global community of learners, Instructors, Maintainers, Lesson Developers, partners, and supporters continues to be the reason The Carpentries thrives. Your commitment to teaching, learning, and sharing computational and data skills has shaped who we are today and continues to guide where we are going next.

Over the past year, we have done important reflection and planning to prepare for our next chapter, and this month we will share the bridge 2026-2028 Strategic Plan that builds on our long-standing mission while responding to a rapidly changing research, education, and open science landscape. This plan is about focus, sustainability, and impact. It is also about ensuring that The Carpentries remains a strong, values-driven organisation that can serve its community for years to come.

Reflecting on Five Years: Publishing The Carpentries Strategic Plan Evaluation Report (2020-2025)

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As The Carpentries community, we have spent the past five years working towards six ambitious goals to strengthen our global network of learners, Instructors, Maintainers, and Member Organisations. Our Strategic Plan Evaluation Report (2020–2025) is now published and archived on Zenodo, providing a comprehensive review of the progress we made together.

You can read and download the full report here: The Carpentries Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 Evaluation Report (Zenodo).

The report highlights achievements such as:

From Surviving to Thriving: A Convening to Reclaim and Sustain Open Science Communities

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Open science has transformed how research is conducted, shared, and reused. Yet the organisations at the heart of this transformation are often left vulnerable, underfunded, and disconnected from one another. To move from simply surviving to truly thriving, five leading open science organisations—The Carpentries, OLS, rOpenSci, pyOpenSci, and PREreview—are convening to chart a collective path forward. We are so grateful to The Navigation Fund for supporting this work, and invite our communities to review the full proposal online.

Happy New Year from The Carpentries

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As we begin the year, we want to reflect on our journey and express deep gratitude for the collective dedication and leadership that have propelled The Carpentries forward. This post marks a significant milestone: On February 1st, The Carpentries will become an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation! We have made substantial progress across our strategic priorities. We remain focused on finalising key projects, exploring new opportunities, and developing a forward-thinking strategic plan for 2026 and beyond. Our work is a testament to our community’s thoughtful collaboration and stewardship, and we are confident it will continue to advance our mission to empower diverse communities through data and software education.

2024 Wrapped: Strategic Plan Progress and our Path Forward

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As we close the year, our final Core Team meeting was a moment of inspiration and reflection. Together, we celebrated our milestones, evaluated progress, and charted the path for an exciting new chapter in The Carpentries’ evolution. This year held particular significance as we worked to bring our 2020–2025 Strategic Plan to life, a vision crafted amidst the global pandemic. With just one year left, we are laying the groundwork for what’s next: strengthening partnerships, amplifying community impact, and staying true to our mission and values. As a reminder, our six strategic goals are:

The Carpentries Strategic Plan: Three Years and Counting

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Last week our Team Leads and Executive Council met to discuss progress towards our strategic plan for 2020-2025. The last update we shared with the community was in May of 2022. If you missed it, read our Strategic Plan Year Two in Review. During the hybrid meeting, our Team Leads shared significant milestones we have achieved in the last year related to the following six strategic goals:

Build regional and local capacity to empower sustainable communities
Intentionally incorporate equity, inclusion, and accessibility to support a diverse community.
Provide opportunities for our volunteers’ and Core Team’s growth and professional development.
Facilitate creating and maintaining relevant, high-quality, community-curated curricula.
Strengthen organisational structure and capacity to be strategic and responsive.
Advocate for our values and vision to empower more people to work with data and software.

Each of these goals carries its specific objectives and rationale to aid us in implementing them. In our third year of work toward the Strategic Plan, we have made significant progress on each of the six goals. Read on to learn about our work on each goal, and follow the Strategic Plan GitHub repository for quarterly updates.

The Carpentries Strategic Plan: Year Two In Review

Mon, 02 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In April of 2021, The Carpentries published our Year One Strategic Plan Update.

Outlined in the strategic plan are the following six goals:

Build regional and local capacity to empower sustainable communities
Intentionally incorporate equity, inclusion, and accessibility to support a diverse community.
Provide opportunities for growth and professional development of our volunteers and Core Team.
Facilitate the creation and maintenance of relevant, high-quality, community-curated curricula.
Strengthen organisational structure and capacity to be strategic and responsive.
Advocate for our values and vision to empower more people to work with data and software.

Each of these goals carries with it specific objectives and rationale to aid us in implementing them.

EIA Roadmap Update: The Strategic Plan is The Plan

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Summary: The Strategic Plan is the plan. Watch this short video of Dr. Kari L. Jordan and Tara Robertson discussing the EIA Roadmap’s alignment with The Carpentries’ Strategic Plan for 2020-2025.

Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EIA) has always been at the forefront of how The Carpentries operates internally, and serves our community. Work on the EIA Roadmap started in 2018, with the final version of the roadmap being published in 2019. Our Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 was released in January 2020. In an ideal world, these two plans might have been released in the reverse order, but EIA was too important for us to wait to have a Strategic Plan in place. EIA is not new for us and we needed to ensure that the important pieces of the roadmap were captured in the Strategic Plan.

Quarterly Strategic Plan Update: Q3 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In January of 2020, The Carpentries published our Strategic Plan for 2020-2025. Written and adopted before the onset of a global pandemic that has reconfigured the way the world operates, this strategic plan has served as a much-needed guidepost for The Carpentries through a period of uncertainty and change. Each quarter, The Carpentries Core Team highlights progress towards completing or fulfilling the strategic plan.

I hope you will be proud of the work we have been able to accomplish in the third quarter of 2021. Our commitment to equity, inclusion and accessibility is strong, and with your help we have improved several workflows and streamlined programs to make it easier for community members to participate and contribute. Read on to learn more, and as always, we invite you to get in touch with us to share any feedback you may have.

Highlighting our strategic plan efforts to support local community building

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At the end of each quarter the Core Team spends time individually and collectively reflecting on the progress the organisation has made toward our Strategic Plan for 2020-2025. This exercise is truly meaningful for us as it speaks to our commitment to one of our 9 Core Values: Act Openly. By sharing semi-regular updates about our strategic plan with our community, we hope to keep you engaged in our growth and development. To follow this work closely watch our strategic-plan GitHub repository.

The Carpentries Strategic Plan: One Year Update

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In January of 2020, The Carpentries published our Strategic Plan for 2020-2025. Written and adopted before the onset of a global pandemic that has reconfigured the way the world operates, this strategic plan has served as a much-needed guidepost for The Carpentries through a period of uncertainty and change. Outlined in the strategic plan are the following 6 goals:

Build regional and local capacity to empower sustainable communities
Intentionally incorporate equity, inclusion, and accessibility to support a diverse community.
Provide opportunities for growth and professional development of our volunteers and Core Team.
Facilitate the creation and maintenance of relevant, high-quality, community-curated curricula.
Strengthen organisational structure and capacity to be strategic and responsive.
Advocate for our values and vision to empower more people to work with data and software.

Each of these goals carries with it specific objectives and rationale to aid us in implementing them.

An update on our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan progress

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Last October we shared progress toward our strategic plan for 2020-2025. We are excited to share more updates with you, and to hear your thoughts about the road ahead. Read on to learn more.

Strategic Plan Progress Updates by Team

Business Team

In Q4 2020, The Business Team explored the revenue applications of The Carpentries current assets and organisational strengths. We researched fundraising strategies and took advantage of fundraising training opportunities offered to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) grantees. The information from these initiatives was used to support the development of a fundraising plan. As part of this project, the team launched a mailing list for members of our community who are interested in helping broaden The Carpentries’ impact on the world around us. For more information, please view the blog post: Announcing The Carpentries Philanthropy: A New Way to Get Involved with The Carpentries (2020-10-01)

Progress Towards The Carpentries 2020-2025 Strategic Plan

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In early June we shared a summary of the work to be completed in year one of our 2020-2025 strategic plan (see this blog post). I enjoy reflecting on our progress because it is a continuous reminder of how strong and vibrant our community is. Read on to learn what we have accomplished as a result of your engagement, and what is to come in the next two quarters.

Strategic Plan Progress Updates by Team

Business Operations

The Carpentries Business Team has successfully piloted a quarterly budget workflow that helps us anticipate our income and expenses. Additionally, our Capacity Building project gave us space to explore revenue generation models and develop a fundraising plan. We documented all of our current Memorandums of Understanding, and developed a wish-list for in-kind support that will be shared with the community very soon. Can you say, “Carpentries Philanthropy”?

The Carpentries’ 2020 Strategic Focus and Path Forward

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On January 30, 2020 The Carpentries released its strategic plan for 2020-2025. This plan outlines six strategic goals for the next five years. The full strategic plan is published on The Carpentries website.

Carpentries Core Team members contributed to the discussion of which Strategic Plan objectives to prioritise in 2020. Priorities were based on the significant progress that had already been made toward some of the strategic objectives, personnel time, and grant obligations. We are delighted to share the goals and priorities for the first year of our strategic plan with the community.

The Carpentries Strategic Plan for 2020-2025

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As its last major decision, the 2019 Carpentries Executive Council approved the first Strategic Plan for The Carpentries. This plan guides our way forward for the next three to five years. This blog post summarises the Strategic Plan; the full version is published [on the Carpentries website]({{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/strategic-plan).

Introduction

The Carpentries was founded in January 2018 via the merger of Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry and was joined later that year by Library Carpentry. All three of these organisations have been dedicated to teaching computing and data skills to their various communities. United under The Carpentries we have the opportunity to work together toward a bigger and broader vision of the future.