Survey: Towards a federation of UK research computing resources
13 January 2026
The National Federation of Compute Services is exploring how a federation of national, regional and institutional computing resources within the UK could benefit researchers and service providers.
An important component of the value of federated computing resources is the availability of research data, and we wish to determine the incentives and barriers to achieving this. We are therefore seeking input both from researchers who generate datasets which they want to make available to other researchers and also from those who run services that make research data available to third parties.
If you fit into either of these categories (i.e. as a data generator or a service provider), we would be grateful if you would complete our survey (closes at the end of March 2026).
You can fill out the survey either in the role of a research data creator/owner or as a data repository service provider. If you are active in both roles, please fill in both parts of the survey.
We hope for wide participation, so please share the survey with your networks. The results will contribute to a roadmap for establishing future federations of computing resources.
Survey closes 31 March 2026. It will take under 15 minutes per role to complete. Participants must be associated with a UK-based institution.
National Federated Compute Services NetworkPlus
The National Federated Compute Services NetworkPlus initiative (NFCS) is engaging compute service users and providers who are focused on the three pillars of governance, technology, and community to develop a roadmap for a national federation of compute services to support the UK’s digital research infrastructure.
