A new special interest group has been launched for anyone interested in the environmental impact of research computing at the University. Find out more about the aims of the group and how to get involved.

We didn’t quite make the end of January but there’s never a bad time to look at what's coming up in Research IT. We asked the three departments in Research IT what they are looking forward to this year.

The renowned SC25 conference, held at the end of last year, showcases major advances in high‑performance and quantum computing. Several members of Research IT attended to engage with cutting‑edge workshops and take part in the large industry exhibition.

We’re pleased to share that Research IT has launched a new social media presence on LinkedIn, currently being trialled as part of our ongoing effort to expand how we communicate with our research community.

The R user community (R.U.M) is one of the most established user groups in CaDiR having previously existed for several years before this as a mailing list group. The group is led by a combination of Research IT members and researchers including Sian Bladon from the School of Health Sciences.

We’re always keen to review our most popular Research IT news stories and blog posts, they reveal what captures the interest of the University’s research community and help us focus on creating content that’s relevant and valuable. So, here are the top 10 posts in 2025.

Discover how our Research Software Engineers worked with a marine shipping company to optimise solar energy usage for the maritime industry, aiding the sector's transition to Net Zero.

On 11 November, Research IT (RIT) and colleagues from the Software Sustainability Institute based at Manchester took part in the University of Manchester’s Computer Science Careers Fair. The event attracted many students, from first-year undergraduates to postgraduates and researchers, who were keen to understand what their future careers could look like and how they might begin shaping them.

It's been almost a year since the Python User Group launched in the CaDiR Teams space. We caught up with Andrew Gait, one of the group leads, to find out more his role in the group and how the last year has gone.

Our team will be taking a well-deserved break over the festive period!

Two of our Research Software Engineers, in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science at the University, partnered with mindcubes to prototype a multi-modal semantic search system that links images to structured knowledge, delivering a scalable AI pipeline for smarter, concept-aware retrieval.

This guide introduces key tools in the software development lifecycle - Git, GitHub, and GitHub Copilot – and explains how University of Manchester staff and students can access them for free through supported programs. Whether you’re working independently or as part of a team, these tools are essential for managing code effectively.