Advanced Research Computing
Advanced Research Computing manages services to meet the specialist computing needs of researchers and their collaborators
Part of IT Services and reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team provides powerful computing systems and tightly-coupled, fast data storage to meet the challenges of research in a whole range of academic disciplines. With over 1,000 applications and libraries built for both HPC and Cloud platforms, the team supports traditional analysis, simulation, modelling, visualisation, AI as well as the latest innovative techniques.
Together, ARC delivers BEAR, the Birmingham Environment for Academic Research. Importantly, BEAR includes guidance and a range of support options for researchers alongside the leading technology solutions. We also run Baskerville, a national accelerated compute system, hosted at the University and providing researchers with access to over 200 high powered GPUs.
The team is led by Carol Sandys and operates in three inter-dependent groups:
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The Architecture Infrastructure and Systems Group, led by Dr Jon Wakelin, develops and manages the cutting-edge infrastructure that underpins BEAR.
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The Research Engagement and Data Group led by Dr Stephanie Thompson, networks with researchers across the University at all stages of their careers to raise awareness of what BEAR can offer, as well as supporting both new and established users via training and 1:1 support sessions.
- The Research Software Group led by Dr Andrew Edmondson, builds and supports the software BEAR relies on, as well as offering a range of free software services direct to individual research projects or researchers; these include training, coaching, coding and advice. The RSG also operates Pool of Research Software Engineers (RSEs) who can be included in grant applications.
Annual Report
You can find links below to our annual report summarising the growth and achievements of ARC in 2020:
Please contact us with any queries.