R Foundation for Statistical Computing

Last updated
R Foundation for Statistical Computing
FormationApril 2003;22 years ago (2003-04)
Type Non-profit organization
Legal statusActive
PurposeSupport for the R Project and innovations in statistical computing
Headquarters Vienna, Austria
Coordinates 48°13′57″N16°21′26″E / 48.2325°N 16.3571°E / 48.2325; 16.3571
President
 Simon Urbanek
Key people
Affiliations R Core Team
Website www.r-project.org/foundation/
RemarksFounded by members of the R Development Core Team

The R Foundation for Statistical Computing is a non-profit organization based in Vienna, Austria, that provides legal and financial support for the R Project. [1] Established in April 2003, it serves as the primary body for holding the intellectual property of the R software environment and for coordinating its global community. [2]

Contents

Purpose and activities

The Foundation was created to provide a stable, long-term framework for the development of R, a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. Its primary goals include safeguarding the project's independence and ensuring the software remains available under open-source licenses. [3]

The Foundation's core activities include:

History

The R language was first developed by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland in the early 1990s. As the user base grew globally, the R Development Core Team was formed in 1997 to maintain the source code. [6]

In 2003, the Core Team members established the R Foundation as a formal legal entity in Austria to provide a centralized point of contact for commercial entities and to manage the project's growing financial needs. [4]

Governance

The Foundation is governed by a board of directors, which has historically consisted of members of the R Core Team. As of 2025, the board includes notable statisticians such as Peter Dalgaard, Kurt Hornik, and Martyn Plummer. [2]

In 2015, the R Foundation became a founding member of the R Consortium, a separate project under the Linux Foundation designed to provide a mechanism for corporate entities to support the R ecosystem through funding for infrastructure and technical projects. [4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The R Foundation". The R Project for Statistical Computing. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  2. 1 2 "Board and Auditors". The R Project for Statistical Computing. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  3. ↑ "R: What is R?". The R Project for Statistical Computing. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  4. 1 2 3 Smith, David (2020-07-27). "The History of R (updated for 2020)". R-bloggers. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  5. ↑ Dimitrov, Mitko A. (2020-02-15). "R software: unfriendly but probably the best". Croatian Medical Journal. 61 (1): 66–68. doi:10.3325/cmj.2020.61.66 . Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  6. ↑ Ihaka, Ross (1998). "R : Past and Future History" (PDF). Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.