The SCALE-UP Network

SCALE-UP is a UKRI-funded digital Research Technial Professionals (dRTP) NetworkPlus project led by Imperial College London in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Northumbria University, University of Sheffield and Queen's University Belfast.

SCALE-UP is supporting the development of community, careers and skills for technical professionals and researchers working with research software, research data and research computing infrastructure.

The project is managing a substantial flexible fund that will be made available through a series of funding calls from 2026. This flexible funding will support organisations around the UK, that are eligible to receive UKRI funding, to work with the SCALE-UP team to enhance opportunities for local dRTPs and researchers through a range of activities. These include a Research Technical Champions scheme, a research technical experience placement programme, and training initiatives to make research computing infrastructures more visible, including support for a small set of "mini-HPC” training clusters.

SCALE-UP is building on the work of the EPSRC-funded Strategic Technical Platform STEP-UP (A Strategic TEchnical Platform for University Technical Professionals) which is undertaking work a regional level, within London and the South East of England, taking initiatives from STEP-UP to a wider national audience, in addition to spearheading new activities.