SCALE-UP
SCALE-UP is a UKRI-funded digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTP) NetworkPlus project led by Imperial College London (PI: Prof. Michael Bearpark), in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Northumbria University, the University of Sheffield, and Queen’s University Belfast. The project runs for four years from April 2025 to March 2029.
SCALE-UP supports the development of community, careers and skills for technical professionals and researchers working with research software, research data and research computing infrastructure. It builds on the EPSRC-funded Strategic Technical Platform STEP-UP, scaling activities that originated as a London-and-South-East regional initiative to a national audience.
The project manages a flexible fund of around £1m that will be made available through a series of funding calls from 2026. UKRI-eligible organisations across the UK can work with the SCALE-UP team to enhance opportunities for local dRTPs and researchers through five strands of activity:
- Research Technical Champions — a national scheme to recognise and support dRTPs leading change in their institutions
- RTP Experience Programme — placements and experience opportunities spanning students, early-career researchers, apprentices and experienced professionals
- Visible Computing — support for a small set of “mini-HPC” training clusters to make research computing infrastructures more accessible
- Training, networking and EDIA activities — workshops and community events building on the dRTP training catalogue developed in STEP-UP
- Flexible Fund — direct funding to UKRI-eligible organisations to deliver locally driven activities
SCALE-UP works with external project partners including Alces Flight, the Research Data Alliance, the Software Sustainability Institute, and HPC-SIG.
Funded by the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure programme via NERC.