The SCALE-UP Network is a UKRI-funded digital Research Technical 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. The project is funded until March 2029.

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.

For further information on the project, see our contact page for details of how to get in touch.

The SCALE-UP “People and Skills” Pipeline

SCALE-UP has been designed to bring together a range of activities and opportunities, building on a variety of related project work, that will provide a pipeline for the development of dRTPs nationally, across the UK.

This will involve providing routes that will support people in a range of roles and at a range of experience levels, including students, early career dRTPs or researchers, and experienced professionals, to develop or enhance a dRTP career. Our Research Technical Champions scheme (aimed at PhD students) and our dRTP experience programme (aimed at recently completed PhD and Masters students) provide structured opportunities to gain experience that could lead to a first dRTP role. Our programme of training, networking and EDIA activities, and our mini-HPC clusters, will provide routes for gaining a variety of ad hoc skills and developing community connections that will also support starting or advancing a dRTP career. These activities will be run by successful applicants to our funding calls, in collaboration with the project team, including our regional hubs represented by the set of institutions involved in the project.