Launched in 2024, the National Federated Compute Services (NFCS) NetworkPlus aims to bring together communities from across the United Kingdom and across the disciplines to identify the pathways towards a joined-up and federated approach to digital research infrastructure.
Large-scale computing is a fundamental and necessary part of modern research. A federation of national, regional and institutional computing resources would deliver significant benefits for researchers, resource and service providers, and funders alike — improving research efficiency, accessibility and collaboration. The NetworkPlus is laying the groundwork and taking the first steps towards the successful delivery of such a federation.
The initiative engages compute service users and providers around three pillars — governance, technology, and community — to co-develop a roadmap for a national federation of compute services that is coordinated, interoperable, and inclusive, leveraging existing services and technologies across the UK.
NFCS NetworkPlus is hosted at Queen Mary University of London, and works in partnership with the University of the West of England Bristol, the University of Bristol, Cardiff University, EPCC, the National Oceanography Centre, the Rosalind Franklin Institute, and the University of Brighton. It sits alongside CAKE within UKRI’s wider family of Digital Research Infrastructure NetworkPlus projects.
The Roadmap Conference 2026 will take place on 10–11 September 2026 in Birmingham — keep an eye on the NFCS website for registration details.
To get in touch with the team, email nfcs-inquiries@jiscmail.ac.uk.