Advanced Research Computing
Advanced Research Computing (ARC) designs, builds and supports the specialist computing services that enable researchers across all disciplines to push the boundaries of knowledge. As part of University IT Services, ARC provides powerful computing systems, fast tightly‑coupled storage, thousands of high-performance computing applications and libraries, and expert research software and data science services. Together, these services form the Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) – a comprehensive suite of compute, storage, software, training and support for academic staff and post-graduate research students.
Cutting‑edge infrastructure
Our architecture and systems teams design and operate the infrastructure that underpins BEAR, including advanced supercomputers, large‑scale storage and research cloud platforms. Our state-of-the-art research data centre is designed to efficiently run the direct liquid cooled servers needed for the latest supercomputers.
What we offer to researchers
Researcher engagement and training
Researcher engagement and training
We support researchers at every career stage through hands‑on training on HPC, data, software and AI; 1:1 drop-in sessions and problem‑solving; and a campus‑wide community supported by our BEAR Champions.
National‑level facilities hosted on campus
National‑level facilities hosted on campus
ARC designs, builds and operates multiple nationally funded research platforms, including Baskerville and CLIMB, enabling major research projects and collaborations across the UK and globally.
High-performance computing (HPC)
High-performance computing (HPC)
Our BlueBEAR high-performance computer is available to all Birmingham researchers, providing advanced capabilities for simulation, modelling, visualisation, AI/ML and large‑scale data analysis.
Research data storage and management
Research data storage and management
Secure, fast, tightly‑coupled storage solutions integrated with compute workflows – from small projects to petascale datasets.
Research software engineering and data science services
Research software engineering and data science services
End‑to‑end support for code development, optimisation, AI and data science, reproducibility and best practice. We offer advice sessions, and short coaching or coding engagements to all researchers in the University, free of charge. We also routinely collaborate with researchers on longer, grant-funded engagements.
Contact and collaboration
Thousands of Birmingham researchers use our services to supercharge their research, with new ones getting access every day. If you’re a researcher at Birmingham then please visit our internal web pages for info on how to best get in touch and to find out how we can help you.
If you’re a partner institution looking to collaborate on national‑scale initiatives, or a researcher considering joining Birmingham then please contact us on bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
For more information about what we do, case studies and job opportunities in our team please visit the BEAR Blog.