A new approach to software development for data-intensive and collaborative research activities is gathering momentum with an announcement by CANARIE of two more competitions for its Network-Enabled Platforms (NEP) program. Calls for proposals are going out in May and July. Established during CANARIE's previous mandate with nearly $28 million in funding, NEP allows developers to create new research platforms using previously developed and tested software elements created through CANARIE's Research Platform Interfaces (RPI) program, avoiding the costly and time-consuming task of writing software code from scratch. The process is iterative, with each new NEP round producing more RPIs. The program engages a wide range of disciplines, allowing researchers to exploit and share data and research that flow through the CANARIE Network….