  Modern science is relying on software more than ever. The behavior and
outcomes of this software shape the scientific and public discourse on
important topics like climate change, economic growth, or the spread of
infections. Most researchers creating software for scientific purposes are not
trained in Software Engineering. As a consequence, research software is often
developed ad hoc without following stringent processes. With this paper, we
want to characterize research software as a new application domain that needs
attention from the Requirements Engineering community. We conducted an
exploratory study based on 8 interviews with 12 researchers who develop
software. We describe how researchers elicit, document, and analyze
requirements for research software and what processes they follow. From this,
we derive specific challenges and describe a vision of Requirements Engineering
for research software.
