Together with Felicia Löcherbach (PhD candidate at VU Amsterdam), Emese Domahidi (Assistant Professor at TU Ilmenau) and Mario Haim (Assistant Professor at the U of Leipzig) discuss what research software is and why to code your own research software. Felicia gives unique insights into the topic using the example of a research software she developed from scratch. We also touch on topics like rewards and challenges, ethics, data security, systematic testing vs. quick and easy solutions and how to find support if you start your own research software project.   References Loecherbach, F., & Trilling, D. (2020). 3bij3 – Developing a framework for researching recommender systems and their effects. Computational Communication Research, 2(1), 53–79. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2020.1.003.LOEC https://github.com/FeLoe/3bij3