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STEP-UP & SCALE-UP: Building dRTP Support and Training Networks

Bearpark, Michael

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17477793
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

This video is a talk from the Data Steward Initiatives session at the CaSDaR Townhall Launch event on the 18th September 2025, in person at the Library of Birmingham and online. The presentation speaker was Michael Bearpark from SCALE-UP. Abstract: The shared purpose of STEP-UP and SCALE-UP is to build support and training networks for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs), starting with the needs and experience of Research Software Engineering in defining itself over the past decade, and extending this to research data and digital research infrastructure / HPC roles. STEP-UP is a regional project, an EPSRC Strategic Technical Platform focussed on London and surroundings. Its central aim is to help define and establish ‘dRTP’ and to support those who’ve chosen these roles. ‘Data’ was really the starting point for this work, as I’ll explain, but ‘research data engineer’ and ‘data steward’ aren’t the same, presenting challenges in developing training at different levels, and elsewhere. SCALE-UP - no acronym - is a UKRI / NERC Network Plus, and is designed to share developments from STEP-UP and elsewhere nationally, primarily through managing a flexible fund for targeted dRTP initiatives across research software, data and digital infrastructures. Through scaling and supporting groups of research technical champions there’s an opportunity to adapt training for specific research domains, while also raising awareness of the work of digital Research Technical Professionals and how important this is. There will be support available for hosting longer placements e.g. in central research computing teams for software / data / infrastructure, and mini compute clusters to support infrastructure training specifically and to make research computing more visible. Speaker Bio: Michael Bearpark is a professor of computational chemistry at Imperial College London and Academic Director of Research Computing Services. He’s part of the STEP-UP regional and SCALE-UP national initiatives which support the development of communities, skills and career opportunities for “digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs)” across software, data and infrastructure. More information on the event can be found here: https://casdar.ac.uk/event/careers-and-skills-for-data-driven-research-casdar-hybrid-event-launch/ A recording of this session is available on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/UgcWIImlhqE This video is an output from the Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR) initiative, a 4-year UKRI funded dRTP initiative.

Full text

STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash STEP-UP & SCALE-UP: Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Prof Michael Bearpark Academic Director of Research Computing Services Imperial College London STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash A Strategic TEchnical Platform for University technical Professionals • Partner institutions: •Imperial (lead) – PI: Dr Jeremy Cohen •UCL •King’s College London •University of Westminster • Project duration: 4 years - Jan 2024 – Dec 2027 •A London regional platform ~£2m (100% FEC) •A group of 6 external project partners contributing in kind – supporting training, EDI, mentoring, etc. STEP-UP is one of 11 Strategic Technical Platform proposals announced by EPSRC in March 2024 https://step-up.ac.uk STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash STEP-UP: Key areas of activity • Community and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion • Growing a regional RSE community to represent data + infrastructure / HPC • Annual conference, events, champions schemes • Training and Skills • Career Pathways, Secondments and Mentoring • Understanding career challenges, work with stakeholders, grow opportunities • Policy, Strategy Awareness and Recognition • Advocating for greater awareness (champions / events) • Engaging with groups such as PRO4RS around institutional policies STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash Training and Skills •Support for developing skills across three dRTP “pillars” – software / data / infrastructure •Support for developing skills at all levels of expertise from beginner to advanced •Building on / collaborating with related activities e.g. in UNIVERSE-HPC – https://www.universe-hpc.ac.uk/ •Learning pathways – how can we develop these? Learning pathways activity used at UNIVERSE-HPC project-led BoF sessions at ISC / SC – see www.universe-hpc.ac.uk/events (Weronika Filinger, EPCC) •RSE skills at beginner and early-intermediate level fairly well understood – much open-source content •Data and computing infrastructure / HPC training less well-understood within the dRTP community at present STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash Building a training grid / catalogue in STEP-UP •Developing an understanding of training needs across the dRTP space at all skill levels •Cataloguing existing open-source materials •Running training to help develop and offer new opportunities to our community •‘Data’ presents a challenge because there are multiple research data roles Training Grid Infrastructure/HPC Advanced Research Data / Advanced RSE / Advanced Infrastructure/HPC Intermediate Research Data / Intermediate RSE / Intermediate Infrastructure/HPC Beginner Research Data / Beginner RSE / Beginner STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash Training delivery, recognition and certification •Recognising the importance of different modes of delivery for training at different levels •Need ways to recognise key skill sets and capabilities • Certification is an ongoing discussion in the RSE community – different perspectives for and against •Need approaches that scale to support the rapidly growing demand for technical skills in the dRTP space STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash The SCALE-UP Network: Scaling dRTP support nationally STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash The SCALE-UP Network: A National People and Skills Pipeline Partner institutions: •Imperial (lead) – PI: Prof. Michael Bearpark •University of Glasgow •Northumbria University •Queen’s University Belfast •University of Sheffield • Project duration: 4 years - April 2025 – March 2029 •Growing the software / data / Infrastructure (dRTP) work of STEP-UP to a national audience STEP-UP & SCALE-UP – Building dRTP Support and Training Networks Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash SCALE-UP •Growing the activities and outputs of STEP-UP to a national audience •Flexible fund of ~£1m for a range of activities to support, develop and grow the dRTP community nationally: from early 2026 •Funding for champions schemes, a dRTP experience programme, miniclusters, plus additional training, networking and community activities •Support from a group of external project partners including Alces Flight, Research Data Alliance, SSI and HPC-SIG