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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on January 28, 2026

Tags: newsletters 

ARCHER2 Capability Days: 3-5 March 2026

The sixth ARCHER2 Capability Days session will run from 3-5 March 2026. ARCHER2 Capability Days are a mechanism to allow users to run large scale tests on the system free of charge. The motivations behind Capability Days are:

  • Enhancing world-leading science from ARCHER2 by enabling modelling and simulation at scales that are not otherwise possible.
  • Enabling capability use cases that are not possible on other UK HPC services.
  • Providing a facility that can be used to test scaling to help prepare software and communities for future large-scale resources.

Capability Days are made up of two parts:

  • 0900-1900 GMT, 3 March 2026- pre-Capability Days session (“pre-capabilityday” QoS) to allow users to test scaling and job setup ahead of full Capability Day
    • Supports jobs 256-1024 nodes, 1 hour maximum run time
    • Jobs are uncharged
  • 0800 GMT, 4 March - 1400 GMT, 5 March 2026 - Capability Days session (“capabilityday” QoS)
    • Supports jobs 512-4096 nodes, 3 hours maximum run time
    • Jobs are uncharged

More information on how to submit jobs to these sessions can be found in the ARCHER2 documentation

Championing Green Digital Research Workshop - Day 0 of ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026

We are pleased to let you know the Championing Green Digital Research Workshop will take place at Sydney Smith - Doorway 1, Medical School, Teviot Place, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG, on Wednesday 18 March 2026, as the Day 0 of the ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026.

The majority of people involved in research using digital research infrastructure (DRI) want to understand and reduce the emissions associated with their research activities to have a positive impact on the path to net zero emissions from research. The term DRI includes a very broad range of infrastructure from personal devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.), through high end servers (HPC and HTC systems) to commercial cloud computing resources. Although most people want to take action, they are hampered by a lack of understanding of the scale and source of DRI emissions, uncertain on what they can do in their day-to-day work, and find it difficult when challenged by colleagues or acquaintances who may be sceptical about taking action. This workshop will provide insight into and expand on recent efforts to understand what skills are needed to empower researchers and other digital research technical professionals to make and advocate for positive impact in using DRI for research.

Registration is open now. Travel support application is due by 5 February 2026.

Further details

ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026

Poster abstract submission due 5 Feb 2026

We are pleased to announce that ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026 will take place on the 19th - 20th March 2026 in Edinburgh at South Hall, The University of Edinburgh.

Please register here to participate. The event is in-person and there is no registration fee.

What to expect at ARCHER2 Celebration of Science

ARCHER2 Celebration of Science is annual event that brings together the ARCHER2 user community to celebrate their scientific achievements on ARCHER2. You can explore the highlights of previous events here and view the science showcased in the previous years.

The two-day programme of ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026 will include:

  • Invited talks: a variety of talks from the invited speakers highlighting their impactful research using ARCHER2.
  • Poster programme: a platform for the ARCHER2 community to present and discuss their successes delivered on ARCHER2 through the lightning talks and the poster session. A Best Poster Prize will be awarded. - Call for Posters is now open!
  • Keynote: the keynote will be given by Professor Mark Parsons, Director of EPCC.
  • Panel Session: focuses on key topics for the ARCHER2 and UK research community.
  • ARCHER2 User Forum: learn about the latest service updates and engage directly with the ARCHER2 team.
  • Diversity Session: an interactive session to discuss the equality, diversity and inclusion challenges related to the delivery of HPC services.

Registration, and Call for posters is now open and poster abstract submission will be due by 5 February 2026. Full details here

Destination Earth: The Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin - CONTINENTS webinar 28th January 15:00

The International Collaboration Towards Net Zero Computational Modelling and Simulation (CONTINENTS), is hosting its next webinar on Wednesday the 28th of January at 15h00 UK time, and will be delivered by Ioan Hadade and Sebastian Milinski from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, with the title “Destination Earth: The Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin”.

The abstract and calendar invite can be found on our website: https://continents-project.github.io/

There is no registration needed, please re-share this event with your contacts.

Getting Started with ReFrame on ARCHER2

Free webinar, Wednesday 4th February 2026 15:00 - 16:00

This webinar will introduce you to ReFrame, a regression testing framework used across HPC systems, such as ARCHER2, to ensure software reliability and performance. We’ll walk through the basics:

  • How ReFrame works.
  • How to run simple tests.
  • How you can use it to make your work on ARCHER2 smoother and more reliable.

Full details and join link

Data Analysis and Visualisation in Python

Online 23 - 24 February 2026 09:30 - 16:30

Python is a general purpose programming language that is useful for writing scripts to work effectively and reproducibly with data.

This is an introduction to Python designed for participants with no programming experience.

This course covers:

  • Some basic information about Python syntax.
  • The Jupyter notebook interface.
  • How to import CSV files.
  • Using the Pandas package to work with data frames.
  • How to calculate summary information from a data frame.
  • Brief introduction to plotting.
  • How to work with databases directly from Python.

Full details and registration

GPU programming with kernels

Online 25 - 27 February 2026 10:00 - 16:00

This three-day course will provide an introduction to GPU computing with HIP aimed at scientific application programmers wishing to develop their own software. The course will give a background on the difference between CPU and GPU architectures as a prelude to introductory exercises in HIP programming. The course will discuss the execution of kernels, memory management, among other topics.

The course will not discuss programming with compiler directives, but does provide a concrete basis of understanding of the underlying principles of the HIP model which is useful for programmers ultimately wishing to make use of OpenMP or OpenACC. The course will not consider graphics programming, nor will it consider machine learning packages.

Note that the course is also appropriate for those wishing to use NVIDIA GPUs via the CUDA API, although we will not specifically use CUDA.

Full details and registration

Call for applications for the International HPC Summer School

Applications are now open for the International HPC Summer School 2026, which will take place July 12-17, 2026 in Perth, Australia, hosted by Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Entering its 16th edition, the program remains one of the premier global training initiatives for graduate students and early-career researchers working in high-performance computing, computational science and data-intensive research. Supported by partner organizations in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Africa and the United States, the school provides an intensive week of technical instruction in MPI, OpenMP, GPU programming, performance engineering, scientific software development, Big Data analytics, complemented by electronic poster sessions, panel discussions, networking activities and a structured mentoring program.

MSc and PhD students studying at the UK institutions are invited to apply

The application deadline is 23:59 AOE (Anywhere On Earth), January 31, 2026.

NFCS Network Plus project, UKRI research data landscape survey

The National Federation of Compute Services (NFCS) is exploring the benefits that establishing a federation of national, regional, and institutional computing resources within the UK could provide to researchers and service providers. Towards this end, we are seeking input from those who generate datasets through their research that they may make available through data publishing services, and also from those who run these services, as data is seen as an important component of these federations.

We would be grateful if you could complete the survey

You can fill this as a person who generates data and may make it available through a data publishing service, or as one of the people that runs such as a service, or, if you participate in both roles, as both. It should take around 15 minutes to fill in the survey per role.
We are hoping for as wide a participation in this survey as possible so please share this with your colleagues.
The survey closes on 31st March 2026. Thank you for your participation.

Registration and Submissions Now Open for the Durham HPC Days 2026

We are excited to announce the Durham HPC Days will return in 2026! This annual event brings together researchers, developers, and practitioners to explore the frontiers of high-performance computing, data analysis, and scientific innovation.

Make sure to check out our summary video and website from 2025’s event for inspiration - and submit your proposals for submissions today.!

  • Dates: 15th - 19th June 2026
  • Submission deadline: January 31st, 2026.
  • Event website

NetDRIVE PhD Summer School: Making positive environmental change in computational and data research practices within large scale compute and HPC

Applications are invited for a fully funded 5-day summer school aimed at PhD students interested in changing the way they use the digital research infrastructure (e.g. large scale compute and HPC) to work to enable a move towards Net Zero. The school will provide training and skills to help empower attendees to make real positive environmental change.

Further details

NetDRIVE Creating a New Reality: A Sustainable Digital Transformation

This meeting is part of the NetDRIVE project, which focuses on delivering authoritative advice to UK Research and Innovation on sustainable digital research infrastructure. It will promote discussion on the shape, constraints, and opportunities of the emerging UK power supply, alongside broader questions of community leadership, scientific credibility, and digital transformation in support of net zero.

The draft agenda is available.

Registration is free but required, please register here. (Closes on 7 April)

Call for Student Volunteers for ISC 2026

This program offers a fantastic opportunity for STEM students to gain hands-on experience and network within the HPC community. ISC will be back in Hamburg from June 22–26, 2026, and selected volunteers will once again receive full conference access and free single-room accommodation (for those traveling from out of town).

Further information

The deadline for this round is Sunday, February 15, 2026.
If you have any questions, please contact student-volunteers@isc-events.com.

CECAM-CSCS Workshop Announcement

EcoCompute: Building Sustainable Scientific Computing Practices Through Academia-Industry Collaboration

  • Dates: May 5-7, 2026 Location: Lugano, Switzerland (CSCS)
  • Format: Hybrid (onsite + online participation)

Workshop Details

Join us for a unique workshop bringing together programming language developers, hardware specialists, commercial and open-source software developers, and academic researchers to address energy-efficient computing challenges.

Program Features:

  • 25 speaking slots across diverse topics: Programming Languages (3), Hardware (3), HPC (3), Open-Source Packages (3), Commercial Packages (3), Academic Research (6), plus Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, and Visualization
  • Bazaar Flash Talk session for early-career researchers and young developers
  • Interactive discussions and networking opportunities

An excellent opportunity for both distinguished experts and emerging researchers to collaborate on sustainable scientific computing.

Topics include:

  • Programming language optimization for sustainability
  • Hardware acceleration and HPC efficiency
  • Molecular dynamics and scientific software optimization
  • Cloud computing and machine learning applications

Registration: CECAM website

Recently added known issues

The “Known Issues” page of the ARCHER2 Documentation https://docs.archer2.ac.uk/known-issues/ lists all current open known issues including a description of the issue, its symptoms and any work-arounds.

No recent issues

Upcoming ARCHER2 Training

Further details of upcoming training

We always welcome researchers wishing to present their work in a webinar - please contact the Service Desk if you would be interested in presenting your work.

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Recordings of past courses

Recordings of past virtual tutorials