  Building software that can support the huge growth in data and computation
required by modern research needs individuals with increasingly specialist
skill sets that take time to develop and maintain. The Research Software
Engineering movement, which started in the UK and has been built up over recent
years, aims to recognise and support these individuals. Why does research
software matter to professional software development practitioners outside the
research community? Research software can have great impact on the wider world
and recent progress means the area can now be considered as a more realistic
option for a professional software development career. In this article we
present a structure, along with supporting evidence of real-world activities,
that defines four elements that we believe are key to providing comprehensive
and sustainable support for Research Software Engineering. We also highlight
ways that the wider developer community can learn from, and engage with, these
activities.
