Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Newsletter
This month we will be meeting new staff starters at the Central Induction and delivering the ‘Data and AI for Researchers’ session for the fully-booked UoB Data Conference, with researchers from across the University describing how they are using our services to benefit their research – we will provide a summary of the session in the March newsletter. In March we will be restarting our in-person drop-in sessions, which will be on the first Wednesday of the month at 13:30-14:30 in Staff House.
Included in this month’s newsletter:
- Researcher Engagement and Data Group Annual Report
- Call for expressions of interest to use UK large scale compute
- Competition! Publications where BEAR services have been used
- Registration for BEAR Challenge 2025 is open!
- BEAR Conference – call for abstracts from PGRs
- Julia Special Interest Group installation event – 5 March
- RSE Midlands at The Exchange – 7 April
- Training workshops
- Turing PhD Enrichment Scheme and AI UK 2025 Conference
- Sensitive Research Network for PhD students
- Case study on using BlueBEAR for quantum research
- BEAR drop-in sessions
Researcher Engagement and Data Group Annual Report
Following on from the Research Software Group’s report last month, the Researcher Engagement and Data Group (REDG) Annual Report for 2024 is now available! The short report describes how the group has expanded its reach over the last year, engaging with over 1200 people at University events and inductions, meeting with 197 researchers on a 1:1 basis, and providing training workshops for 389 attendees. Find out more about the group and its activities in the REDG Annual Report.
Call for expressions of interest to use UK large scale compute
A call for Expression of Interest (EOI) is currently open from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for UK researchers who have a clear need for AI compute to access the new AI Research Resource (AIRR), in particular, the Isambard-AI and Dawn compute services. We encourage University researchers to apply and are keen to hear of experiences from those who are successful. For more details see the EOI for UK large scale compute (closes 19 December 2025).
We still await news from UKRI regarding the future of regional and national compute such as Baskerville, which is hosted at the University. However, we wish to reassure you that we aim to continue providing access to Baskerville compute resources for University of Birmingham researchers beyond the end date of current UKRI funding for the service of 31 March 2025.
Competition! Publications where BEAR services have been used
We have recently reached 1473 publications listed where BEAR services have been used as part of the research. As we are getting close to the 1500 mark, we are offering a BEAR prize bag for the 1500th publication to be added, plus we will feature your research in a future case study! So if you have any publication, resulting in whole or in part from using BEAR services, log this by editing the project listing in BEAR Admin and the winner could be you! See our webpage on acknowledging BEAR for more details.
Registration for BEAR Challenge 2025 is open!
We are pleased to announce that booking is now open for the BEAR Challenge 2025! The challenge will be held over three days from Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 June and is open to teams of undergraduate or taught postgraduate students. Students will get access to our Tier 2 national supercomputer, Baskerville, with its state-of-the-art GPUs, to run a series of challenges to give them experience in using High Performance Computing, plus hear career talks from industry-leading experts. Please pass this on to any relevant taught students in your area – a working knowledge of a programming language is required. Further details and a booking link can be found via our Eventbrite page.
BEAR Conference – call for abstracts from PGRs
The BEAR Conference 2025 is led by a team of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and will be held on Thursday 22 May, focused on the theme of sustainability. This is an opportunity to network with professionals plus peers and gain valuable insights from experts at this interdisciplinary event. There is currently a call for abstracts from PGRs using BEAR services to showcase their work. Whether you have presented at a conference before or not, this is a safe space to take your first steps. Register your poster or talk submission via the BEAR Conference webpage.
Julia Special Interest Group installation event – 5 March
The new Julia Programming Language Special Interest Group (SIG) had a successful inaugural event in January (LinkedIn summary post here) and is now running their second session entitled ‘Julia installation and package management’. The in-person workshop will be held on Wednesday 5 March between 14:00-16:00 in the Teaching and Learning building, where help will be provided to attendees to install and use Julia. Find out more via the LinkedIn event and register for a place via the event form.
RSE Midlands at The Exchange – 7 April
The University will be hosting the annual RSE Midlands Conference at The Exchange(Birmingham city centre), on Monday 7 April. If you have experience with Research Software Engineers (RSEs), or are curious to find out more about them, please see the RSE Midlands webpages for event details and to book your free place.
Training workshops
We have some spaces available on our upcoming courses including MATLAB, Advanced R, Advanced BlueBEAR, Git, and Image Processing with Python. For more information and to sign up, see our training webpages.
Turing PhD Enrichment Scheme and AI UK 2025 Conference
The Turing PhD Enrichment scheme provides full time doctoral students at UK universities the opportunity to expand their research horizons and career prospects by undertaking aplacement at the Alan Turing Institute from early October 2025 for 9 months. 20-25 placement opportunities are available for students to continue their PhD research whilst immersing themselves in the Turing’s diverse research environment. Find out more via the Turing webpage and video guidance (closing date Monday 10 March). If anyone applies for the scheme, then please let our University Turing Liaison know.
In other Turing-related news, there are still places available for their annual AI Conference ‘AI UK 2025’ on 17-18 March, which will be held in-person in London with virtual attendance also possible. Find out more via the AI UK 2025 webpages.
Sensitive Research Network for PhD students
If you are a PhD student researching complex and emotionally demanding topics across the social sciences, then you may be interested in joining the student-led ‘Sensitive Research Network’, specifically for PhD students in the Midlands area. Find out more on the Sensitive Research Network webpages.
Case study on using BlueBEAR for quantum research
In this month’s featured case study, we hear from Jonathon Riddell (researcher in Physics) who relies heavily on using BlueBEAR to study quantum systems in the Theoretical Physics Group. Jonathon explains how the high memory nodes and fast compute on BlueBEAR enable him to create efficient algorithms to prepare ‘random states’ on quantum computers. Have a read of Jonathon’s case study to find out more.
BEAR drop-in sessions
By popular request, we are restarting our in-person drop-in sessions, with a regular monthly session being held on the first Wednesday of the month at 13:30-14:30 on the first floor of Staff House (formerly Café Aroma). We will still be providing additional virtual drop-in sessions via Zoom for those not on campus or who require specialist help – check the drop-in webpage for updates, as well as details on how to join the sessions. Currently scheduled dates are also listed below:
- Via Zoom – Tuesday 25 February, 11:00-12:00
- In-person – Wednesday 5 March, 13:30-14:30 – Staff House, first floor (look for our banner)
- Via Zoom – Monday 10 March, 13:00-14:00
- Via Zoom – Thursday 20 March, 11:00-12:00
- Via Zoom – Friday 28 March, 9:30-10:30
Missed last month’s newsletter?
Find January’s newsletter here. Sign up to receive the newsletter direct to your inbox by joining our bear-updates mailing list here (UoB login required), or ask to join via email at bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk