2024 IT Needs of Active Research Survey results

We were pleased to see a 54% increase in responses to the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research (PVC-R’s) ‘IT Needs of Active Research Survey 2024’ compared to the previous survey in 2022. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and to share their views. The Survey aims to understand the IT you need … Continue reading “2024 IT Needs of Active Research Survey results”

Upcoming maintenance in December and January

As part of the standard maintenance cycle, as usual there will be an extended shutdown of Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Services around the second week of December to carry out major maintenance. This year there are additional major pieces of work to complete which mean more downtime than in previous years: This complex … Continue reading “Upcoming maintenance in December and January”

Building professional skills via an internship

Back in Autumn 2023, we were pleased to have an intern join us for 3 months for their Professional Internship for PhD Students (PIPS) placement, as part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP). You can find out what PhD student Kirsty McCready got up to in the article below. The MIBTP is a … Continue reading “Building professional skills via an internship”

Reflections on the BEAR Challenge 2024

In this blog post, we hear from Ivan Korniichuk, a member of the third-placed team in BEAR Challenge 2024, who gives his perspective on the recent event. I am delighted to announce that our team “return -1” achieved 3rd place in the BEAR Challenge 2024! Participating in this intensive three-day event at the University of … Continue reading “Reflections on the BEAR Challenge 2024”

BEAR Challenge 2024

We welcomed 50 undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to the 5th BEAR Challenge (#BEARChallenge2024), held over 24-26 June, 2024. Due to room constraints, we could only fit in 10 teams, so unfortunately had to turn away over 50 additional students who had applied. This year, we welcomed teams with students from Computer Science, Physics, Philosophy, … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2024”

Work experience in Advanced Research Computing

Back in May, two students from year 10 did their work experience within the Advanced Research Computing team at the University of Birmingham. You can find out how their week went below, as they describe their first-hand experience. Who we worked for During our week of work experience we worked alongside Dr Stephanie Thompson of … Continue reading “Work experience in Advanced Research Computing”

February BEAR newsletter

Welcome to the BEAR Newsletter, bringing you the latest news from the BEAR team (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research), as well as other relevant computing and data-related news from both within the University of Birmingham and outside. Every two years we run a survey to establish the IT needs of researchers, and this enables us … Continue reading “February BEAR newsletter”

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IT Needs of Active Research Survey Progress – 18 months on

Back in the spring of 2022, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research’s ‘IT Needs of Active Research Survey’ was released, and four months later we provided summary results and actions that would be taken in response. The 2024 survey has just gone live (19th February), and we wanted to update you on the progress made.    … Continue reading “IT Needs of Active Research Survey Progress – 18 months on”

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January BEAR newsletter

Welcome to the BEAR Newsletter, bringing you the latest news from the BEAR team (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research), as well as other relevant computing and data-related news from both within the University of Birmingham and outside. Happy New Year! We are kicking off 2024 by welcoming two new starters to Advanced Research Computing; 1) … Continue reading “January BEAR newsletter”

BEAR Champion team news

In September 2019, we launched our BEAR Champion scheme to help spread the word about BEAR services, and since then the team has expanded to 20 over all 5 colleges – see our list of BEAR Champions. In the last year, we have welcomed 6 new BEAR Champions: Dr Jack Sullivan from the Institute of … Continue reading “BEAR Champion team news”