This past week has seen remarkable progression for the Research Lifecycle programme, with funding being approved and change projects moving into their first stages of implementation

Change Projects

On 18^th September, the Change and IT Process Subcommittee (CITP) approved the first business case for this financial year, which introduces four new change projects. This means we can begin implementation as well as focus on the write up of the November and December business cases.

One example of our change projects gaining traction has been the selection of project managers. These individuals will oversee operations of their projects, as well as work together to ensure each project is working towards the RLP common goal. Namely the removal of administrative and technological obstacles to researcher teams, enabling them to spend more time on research activities.

Change projects are working closely with the research community, both research teams and support staff, to inform their decisions and actions. Many researchers have registered interest in various change projects and they will be consulted as we progress.

In the coming months, these project managers and volunteers will help each of the change projects take shape. We will be able to articulate better how these projects aid the research process. Including improved data management, communities of practice for research support professions, and support for systems of collaboration.

With the change projects underway, we will also be able to provide a more detailed timeline of the RLP’s predicted activities over the next five years.

Computational Investment

The RLP’s successful business case has also led to more funds specifically geared towards investing in Research IT infrastructure this year, and for the next four years. This includes computational resources, VMs, storage etc. The first phase, this autumn, will be an investment of over £900k in local computational platforms, aimed at addressing the needs of researchers who require High Performance Compute capabilities. This investment replaces that initially proposed under the N* consortium with a local facility.

Computational Research Workshops

Due to be held on:

• Wednesday 17^th October – Mansfield Cooper, in Room 2.03 from 15:00-16:30
• Tuesday 23^rd October – University Place, in Room 5.206 from 10:00-11:30

These workshops are a good opportunity to have your say on how you think we should prioritise our funds. Particularly with regards to expanding researcher’s computational infrastructure. This could be anything from more GPUs to a server with 3TB of RAM inside. We hope to see you there.

Open House Event

Our next open house event is taking place from 1pm-2pm on Tuesday 30 October, in Room 3.40 of the Simon Building. It will consist of:

• An introduction to the Digital Image Viewer project (Bryan Archer, Project Manager)
• The past few months’ progress of the RLP (Angus Hearmon, RLP Programme Director)
• Q&A

If you’re interested, please register here:

• RLP open house event – October 2018

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