What is a Carpentries Workshop?
The Carpentries teaches in-person workshops around the world on the foundational skills to work effectively and reproducibly with data and code. Our certified volunteer Instructors are trained in pedagogy and focus on creating a motivating and engaging environment for learners. Our workshops are inclusive and hands-on, empowering students to learn new skills and build confidence in using them in their work.
Because our workshops are taught around the world, we have a team of Regional Coordinators to help support the coordination of workshop activities. They are available to answer any questions or concerns you may have about our workshops or The Carpentries in general.
We encourage you to check out our upcoming and past workshops to see examples of how The Carpentries workshops are run.
- Workshop Curriculum
- Organising a Workshop
- Core Requirements for a Workshop
- Workshop Cost
- Upcoming Workshops
Carpentries by the numbers
instructors
learners
workshops
* Learners count is estimated based on average workshop attendance of 25.
Workshop Curriculum
Data Carpentry workshops are for people who work with data in their research and want to learn how to code and organise their projects to work more effectively and reproducibly with data.
Library Carpentry workshops are for people working in library- and information-related roles to build software and data skills. The workshops are domain-agnostic though datasets used will be familiar to library staff.
Software Carpentry workshops are for people who are learning to code to develop software or learn best-practices in software development. Lessons are domain-agnostic, and teach the Unix shell, coding in R or Python, and version control using Git.
Organising a Workshop
The Carpentries offers two types of workshops: Centrally-Organised and Self-Organised.
Requesting a Centrally-Organised Workshop
Centrally organised workshops come with the full support of The Carpentries Workshop Administration team! These workshops are organised for a fee. The Regional Coordinator for your region will locate and coordinate instructors for the workshop. We want to ensure your workshop is successful. Therefore we ask that you request Centrally-Organised workshops at least 2-3 months before your desired workshop date. To learn more about the process for organising a workshop please review the Workshop Checklist.
Summary of workshop costs
| Institution type | Workshop coordination fee | Instructor Travel |
| Non-profit or government | US $2500 | Estimate US $2000* |
| For-profit | Contact us** |
* We work to find local instructors, but you should budget for instructor travel
** 50% of fees for for-profit institutions go to support workshops in areas with financial need
Read more about our workshop costs.
Registration of Self-Organised Workshops
The Carpentries welcomes you to organise and run your own workshop. This means you are already connected with our certified Instructors and will work with them on all aspects of workshop organisation. When planning a Self-Organised workshop we ask that you complete the self organised workshop notification form to notify us of your planned workshop so that we can add your workshop to our website, provide support (in the form of survey result links and AMI instances for Genomics workshops), and get instructors and helpers credit for the workshops they teach. To learn more about the process for organising a workshop please review the Workshop Checklist. Since you will be taking care of all the logistics, there is no administrative fee due to The Carpentries for running a Self-Organised workshop.
Remember, we want to know about any workshops you teach that use The Carpentries material! If you teach a workshop that is shorter or longer format, or mixes and matches from Lesson Programs, we are piloting tracking these workshops. You can register a Self-Organised workshop and it will be listed on The Carpentries webpage.
What are the requirements for a Carpentries workshop?
A Carpentries workshop must meet the following requirements:
- Teach a lesson program's core curriculum
- Have at least one certified instructor
- Must use The Carpentries curriculum
- Use The Carpentries surveys to get evaluations
- Abide by The Carpentries Code of Conduct.
What are the Core curricula for a Carpentries Workshop?
Official Carpentries workshops meet the workshop requirements listed above, including teaching a lesson program's core curriculum. The core curriculum for each lesson program is listed below:
Data Carpentry workshops should contain the following:
- A lesson on data organisation
- Any three other lessons from in the same domain in the Data Carpentry curriculum
Library Carpentry workshops should contain the following:
- Any three lessons from the Library Carpentry curriculum
Software Carpentry workshops should contain Software Carpentry lessons on:
- The Unix Shell
- Version Control with Git
- A programming language (R or Python)
Workshop Cost
Our instructors are volunteers and are not paid for their time teaching. Therefore we ask the host to cover travel and accommodation costs for instructors assigned to teach at your institution.
- The total cost of hosting a workshop includes both the Workshop Administration Fee and travel expenses for the instructors.
- The administration fee is used to support staff time with this partnership. You will be provided with exceptional customer service and timely support from our Workshop Administration Team and Regional Coordinators.
Workshop Administration Fee (Government and non-profit institutions):
- $2500 US (Applies only to Centrally-Organised workshops being coordinated outside of a Carpentries membership)
- The Carpentries staff will recruit instructors to teach your workshop and will assist with managing registration, if needed.
- To keep workshops accessible, The Carpentries will take responsibility for standard fees that arise due to an organisation’s location outside of the US. We see this as good business practice within a global community.
Workshop Administration Fee (For Profit institutions):
For information on fees for for-profit organisations, please contact us. 50% of workshop coordination fees for for-profit organisations go towards supporting workshops in areas with financial need.
All invoices will be issued by Community Initiatives, our fiscal sponsor. The Carpentries staff will work with host sites to manage the invoicing process.
Workshop Administration Scholarship
Scholarships may be available for workshops that reach new or under-served communities. If you are interested in hosting a Centrally Organised workshop and would like to request assistance covering the fee, please complete the Workshop Request Form. Select the option “I am requesting a scholarship to waive the administrative fee” and answer the required questions. If a scholarship is awarded, the host will still be responsible for the instructor travel expenses.
Travel Expenses for Instructors:
The instructors selected to teach workshops are volunteers and are not paid for their service. To compensate for their time we require the Host to cover travel expenses. We work to find local instructors, but suggest that you estimate about $2000 total ($1000 per Instructor) for the travel, food, and accommodation of the instructors.The details of how you will manage the instructors travel is discussed once the instructors are confirmed and introduced to the host. The Carpentries is not involved in this process.Contact Us
Someone in your region is waiting to speak to you about The Carpentries and/or to request a workshop! We invite you to contact your Regional Coordinator or request information about our workshops to start the conversation!
Upcoming workshops
 |  University of Wisconsin - Madison ** Instructors: Christina Koch, Sarah Stevens, Tobin Magle, Trisha Adamus, Sailendharan Sudakaran, Elizabeth McDaniel, Clare Michaud Helpers: Christina Koch, Lauren Michael, Sarah Stevens, Trisha Adamus, Sailendharan Sudakaran, Kimberly O'Keefe, Cid Freitag, Casey Schacher | Jan 29 - Apr 29, 2020 |
 |  Utrecht University Instructors: Anita Schürch | Apr 6 - Apr 7, 2020 |
| | University of Missouri Instructors: Samniqueka Halsey, Steven Pryor | Apr 9 - Apr 10, 2020 |
| | Zoom ** Instructors: Tim Dennis, Jamie Jamison, Kristian Allen, Leigh Phan | Apr 10 - May 1, 2020 |
 | Washington State University Instructors: Sarah Murphy, Michael Meyer, Nicholas Potter, Alex Kappes | Apr 13 - Apr 14, 2020 |
| |  Colegio de Postgraduados Campus Campeche Instructors: Nelly Sélem Helpers: Abraham Avelar | Apr 14 - May 14, 2020 |
| | Zar Room, John Crerar Library, University of Chicago Instructors: Brooke Luetgert, William Ngiam Helpers: Lachlan Deer, Angela Li | Apr 16 - Apr 17, 2020 |
| |  Albert Einstein Science Park, Potsdam, Germany Instructors: Maximilian Dolling, Bezaye Tesfaye | Apr 20 - Apr 21, 2020 |
| |  Curtin University Instructors: Kathryn Napier | Apr 21 - Apr 23, 2020 |
| |  University of Oslo Instructors: Annika Rockenberger, Matthew Good | Apr 28 - Apr 29, 2020 |
 |  Ryerson University Instructors: Kaitlin Newson Helpers: John Fink | Apr 29 - Apr 30, 2020 |
| | University of Queensland Instructors: Stéphane Guillou, Mark Crowe | Apr 30 - May 1, 2020 |
| | Universities at Shady Grove Instructors: David Durden, Sarah Over, Amy Trost, Candace Norton | Apr 30 - May 1, 2020 |
| | University of Missouri Instructors: Samniqueka Halsey, Steven Pryor | May 7 - May 8, 2020 |
| | Oklahoma State University Instructors: Phillip Doehle Helpers: Kay BJornen | May 11 - May 12, 2020 |
| | Griffith University Instructors: Amanda Miotto | May 26 - May 28, 2020 |
| | New York University Instructors: Andrew Battista, Billy Broderick Helpers: Vicky Steeves, Casey Hampsey | May 28 - May 29, 2020 |
| | NIST Instructors: Chandler Becker, Randal McDermott, Andrew Reid, Andrea Medina-Smith Helpers: Daniel Wheeler | May 29 - Jun 1, 2020 |
| | Universitaire bibliotheken Leiden Instructors: Kristina Hettne, Matthijs de Zwaan, Alice Doek Helpers: Henriette Reerink | Jun 8 - Jun 9, 2020 |
| | RMIT Melbourne Instructors: Will Pitchers, Paul Harrison, Nick Wong | Jun 29 - Jun 30, 2020 |
| | Griffith University Instructors: Amanda Miotto | Jul 6 - Jul 8, 2020 |
| | New York University Bobst Library Instructors: Alexandra Provo | Jul 9 - Jul 10, 2020 |
| | Griffith University Instructors: Amanda Miotto | Aug 17 - Aug 19, 2020 |
| | The Maritime Museum Instructors: Miklós Koren | Aug 23 - Aug 24, 2020 |