Many researchers are aware they can include Research Software Engineering support in their grant applications — but perhaps fewer realise that our Research Platforms team can also be included to provide a wide range of services. From bespoke hardware provision to systems management and automation support, the Platforms team has enabled research across diverse areas. That includes collaborations with the National X-ray Computed Tomography Research Facility and, as highlighted here, the High Energy Physics group.

Shahbaz Ahmad, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Chemistry, highlights how the recent hardware upgrade to the Computational Shared Facility (CSF) has significantly boosted his research efficiency and productivity. The enhanced computational power allows for significantly faster simulations, accelerating his work on homogeneous catalysis for converting nitrogen to ammonia and other valuable products.

At the end of March, members of our Research Software Engineering (RSE) team ran a Carpentries-style training course for environmental science researchers in how to create research software. Could we offer something similar to YOUR PhD students and early career researchers?

Our Application Support team have a wide variety of skills and experience available to researchers. Recently Oliver Woolland helped a researcher from the School of Chemistry to make the most of our GPU offering by running advanced, accelerated applications.

Several of our Research Software Engineers are co-authors on a recent Nature Scientific Reports paper which found that people living in urban areas have worse hay fever symptoms than those living in the countryside.

Tom Flint from the Department of Materials was recently awarded the Donald Julius Groen prize for his outstanding paper from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Here he explains how the use of CSF was at the heart of his research.

Research IT is to a play a major role in a £7 million project, led by The University of Manchester, to provide easy access to an extensive range of the UK’s environmental data.

Ann Gledson, Research Software Engineer, is working with researchers from Computer Science and the Alan Turing Institute to investigate the relationship between hay fever and air quality.

Research Software Engineers, Peter Crowther and Ann Gledson, have been working with the University Department of Mathematics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on improving their simulation model of contact tracing, which can be used to predict and explain the effectiveness of different strategies in reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2

Ann Gledson, Research Software Engineer, is part of a cross-university team that recently won a University of Manchester “Making a Difference” award for the Manchester Urban Observatory.

Find out how Peter Crowther, a Research Software Engineer in Research IT, helped Christopher Daniel from the Lightform Group in the Department of Materials to improve and prepare his code ready for publication.

Working out the relationships between the twigs in the tree of life - with confidence - is a key goal for biologists and palaeontologists. It also provides computational challenges. Russell Garwood, from the School of Natural Sciences, explains what these are, and how Research IT have helped.