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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on February 11, 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 extended to 19 February 2026.

Further details

ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2026

Poster abstract submission extended to 12 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 extended to 11 February 2026. Full details here

Quantum Computing Without A Quantum Computer

Free webinar, Wednesday 18th February 2026 15:00 - 16:00

In this talk Dr Oliver Thomson Brown, EPCC’s Quantum Group lead will (very) briefly introduce quantum computing, and then discuss how we can use HPC facilities like ARCHER2 to emulate quantum computers. While classical emulation does have its limits, it remains a valuable tool in the development of quantum algorithms and quantum computing hardware.

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

Green software use on HPC

The Alan Turing Institute, British Library, London, 26 February 2026 10:00 - 15:30

This lesson introduces environmental sustainability principles in the context of high performance computing (HPC) systems. Understanding the scale of emissions from different sources is critical to being able to make changes to work in a more environmentally sustainable way. This lesson will give you the ability to understand emissions arising from use of HPC system and how to quantify them. We will use practical examples and real data from an existing HPC facility to illustrate the concepts. By the end of this lesson you should:

  • Be able to understand the concept of carbon efficiency and how it relates to energy efficiency including cases where energy efficiency can be at odds with carbon efficiency
  • Know about how HPC systems potentially reduce emissions
  • Understand carbon intensity of electricity generation and the implications for carbon aware use of HPC
  • Appreciate the embodied emissions associated with HPC hardware and how they impact carbon aware use of HPC
  • Be aware of the frameworks used to measure and report on carbon emissions and how the terms used in these frameworks map onto HPC
  • Gain practical advice on how you can measure and improve the carbon efficiency of your use of HPC

Full details and registration

Introduction to Modern Fortran

Online 2 - 4 March 2026 10:00 - 16:00 GMT

This course is aimed at users and developers who know how to program, but have little or no experience in Fortran, and those who may wish to have a refresher in Fortran.

Fortran (a contraction of Formula Translation) was the first programming language to have a standard (in 1954), but has changed significantly over the years. More recent standards (the latest being Fortran 2023) come under the umbrella term “Modern Fortran”. Fortran retains very great significance in many areas of scientific and numerical computing, particularly for applications such as quantum chemistry, plasmas, and in numerical weather prediction and climate models.

This course provides an introduction to the basics of writing Fortran. It will cover basic syntax, variables, expressions and assignments, flow of control, and introductions to i/o and user-defined types. Common Fortran idioms are introduced and contrasted with those available in C-like languages; the course will try to focus on real usage rather than formal descriptions.

At the end of the course you should be able to understand many Fortran programs and be confident to start to write well-structured and portable Fortran. Fortran is a rather “large” language, so it is not possible to cover all its features in a two or three day course. Further elements of Fortran are discussed in the “Intermediate Modern Fortran” course.

Full details and registration

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