Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Newsletter
This month’s Editor: Stephanie Thompson
In Advanced Research Computing, we’ve been welcoming lots of new starters this month, some of whom will be supporting the Baskerville National Compute Resource, which was turned on for the first time last week! Find out how to be one of the first users below, and follow along with build progress on the Baskerville NCR LinkedIn page.
Included in this month’s newsletter:
- New starters in Advanced Research Computing – Jack, Elliot and James
- Understanding recent BlueBEAR service disruptions
- Work experience in Advanced Research Computing
- Early access: Baskerville National Compute Resource
- UoB R User Group: R Project Sprint 2026 Report-Back – 2 September
- Sustainable Research Computing Special Interest Group update
- BEAR Conference proceedings
- UK Data Service Code Anxiety club – 4 August
- UKRI National Compute Ecosystem webinar – 6 August
- Have your say on research data quality
- Number of publications supported via BEAR
- Case study on the use of BlueBEAR in DNA replication research
- BEAR drop-in session dates
News from the Advanced Research Computing team
New starters in Advanced Research Computing – Jack, Elliot and James
We are pleased to welcome Jack Sullivan, Elliot Wright, and James Tripp to the Advanced Research Computing team! Jack joins the Researcher Engagement and Data Group to support engagement and training for the new Baskerville National Compute Resource and may be familiar as a former BEAR Champion. Elliot joins the Architecture, Infrastructure and Systems Group, as a Graduate Research Infrastructure Engineer and was a member of the BEAR Challenge 2025 winning team. James joins the Research Software Group as a Research Software Engineer.
Understanding recent BlueBEAR service disruptions
Over the past few months, BlueBEAR users may have experienced periods of reduced service availability, planned maintenance, and interruptions to normal operations. We recognise that these disruptions can be frustrating, particularly when research projects depend on reliable access to High Performance Computing (HPC) resources. Our blog post on service disruption explains the factors behind recent outages and outlines the steps we have taken to improve service resilience.
Work experience in Advanced Research Computing
Over the last few years, Advanced Research Computing (ARC) has hosted more than ten work experience students, ranging from year 10 pupils to undergraduate students. We’ve found the experience incredibly rewarding, both for the students who take part and for our team. Read about this summer’s placements in our work experience blog post.
Early access: Baskerville National Compute Resource
The Baskerville Supercomputing Centre and the Institute for Data and AI (IDAI) are inviting University of Birmingham users to be among the first to access the new Baskerville National Compute Resource (NCR). Early access will begin in October 2026, with participants helping to test the system ahead of its full launch in April 2027. Read the early access blog post for further details and application information.
Special Interest Groups
UoB R User Group: R Project Sprint 2026 Report-Back – 2 September
The University of Birmingham R User Group (UoB RUG) is happy to host a special event alongside the R Project Sprint 2026. Join us on Wednesday 2 September at the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator to hear sprint participants share updates on their work and learn about current developments in the R community. The event begins with coffee and networking from 15:00, followed by hybrid presentations from 15:30 to 16:30, and optional co-working session until 17:30. Join the Teams group to get full details and hear about future events.
Sustainable Research Computing Special Interest Group update
We are pleased to welcome Dr Csilla Várnai as the Academic Chair for the Sustainable Research Computing Special Interest Group. Having successfully led her own research group to achieve Green DiSC Digital Certification, Csilla is now helping others become certified through shared resources and workshops. To learn more, access resources, and hear about upcoming events, join the group virtually on Teams (see details on the Research Computing Data Community blog post).
BEAR Conference proceedings
The proceedings of the 15th BEAR Conference are now published on Zenodo. Held in April on the theme AI x Integrity, the conference brought together researchers using BEAR services in a variety of innovative ways. Through the published abstracts, Chair of the BEAR User Group Dietmar Heinke invites readers to explore the featured research and discover how BlueBEAR can help power their own projects.
News and events from outside the University
UK Data Service Code Anxiety club – 4 August
Our BEAR training workshops are taking a break over the summer but if you’re looking for some live coding help, the UK Data Service are running a ‘Code Anxiety Club’ covering Git on Tuesday 4 August 13:30-14:00. Viewers can follow along as they work through common beginner topics while coding live for a quick half hour. No prior experience, installed software or setup required. Find out more on the Code Anxiety club webpage.
UKRI National Compute Ecosystem webinar – 6 August
Next Thursday (6 August) at 15:00-16:30, UKRI are hosting a webinar to provide an opportunity for people in the research and innovation community to engage with them on plans for the Next National Supercomputing Service (NNSS) and the National Compute Resources (NCRs). For more details and to register visit the webinar registration page.
Have your say on research data quality
The Horizon Europe-funded EOSC EDEN project is inviting researchers from all disciplines and career stages to complete a survey on their experiences of sharing, finding, accessing, and reusing research data. The results will help shape future approaches to research data curation, preservation, and reuse. The survey takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete and is open until Monday 31 August 2026. Find out more and take part via the Nettskjema website.
Use of BEAR services
Number of publications supported via BEAR
When we ask researchers to re-register their projects every 6 months, we also ask them to provide details of publications that have been enabled by using BEAR services. We are pleased to announce that over 1800 publications have now been registered, with number 1800 being from David Scanlon’s group, describing research into improving performance of photovoltaic cells. Thank you to all who have helped provide this valuable information, which enables us to show the University that our services provide essential support for research. It is possible to add information on your publications at any time – see details on the Acknowledging BEAR webpage.
Case study on the use of BlueBEAR in DNA replication research
In this month’s featured case study, researcher Paolo Passaretti from Cancer and Genomic Sciences explains how he used BlueBEAR’s GPU resources to run AlphaFold protein structure predictions to investigate how cells copy and protect their genomes during DNA replication. Take a look at Paolo’s case study to find out more.
Opportunities for 1:1 support
BEAR drop-in session dates
Due to refurbishments to Staff House, our monthly in-person drop-in sessions will be held at various locations across campus from September onwards. These sessions will continue to take place on the first Wednesday of each month, apart from August when we will not be holding one. We also provide additional virtual drop-in sessions via Teams 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 Teams – Monday 17 August, 13:30-14:30
- In-person – Wednesday 2 September, 11:30-12:30 – Biosciences Undercroft (ground floor), look for our banner
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