Why work with us
We are a group of expert research software engineers and data scientists. For project partners, we offer a stable and knowledgeable collaboration focused on maximising the impact of project outcomes and solving problems in the Turing’s strategic challenges areas, while creating high quality tools, practices, methodologies, platforms and systems.
For examples of our work, see the projects we've been involved in.
How to collaborate with Research Engineering
Below we outline the process of how to collaborate with the Research Engineering Group (REG) at the Turing. All projects go through the following steps:
- Initial request for collaboration
- Scoping of the project and REG planning meeting
- Project start
The details of individual steps are outlined below.
We recommend that potential collaborators contact the Research Engineering team in the planning phase of their project, i.e. before/during writing the project proposal, well before any funding application deadline, or as early as possible (for already funded projects) in order to allow enough time to discuss the project and shape the collaboration.
The current demand for REG staff outstrips the capacity of the group and unfortunately we cannot respond to last minute requests. Please also note that the current lead time for accessing REG resources is around 6 months.
Initial request
Research Engineering's work is aligned with the Institute's main research challenges which aim to represent areas in which AI and data science can have a game-changing impact for science, society, and the economy. For each, a Challenge Lead helps to coordinate our partnership with the corresponding research programme.
Lead |
Challenge |
|
Federico Nanni (Humanities) |
|
Guidance
Turing researchers and students looking for collaboration with Research Engineering should email the relevant Challenge Lead (see above); they may also be able to offer you support in finding appropriate funding sources.
If you are external to the Turing, please get in touch with the Partnerships team at [email protected].
When making a formal request for collaboration, please prepare to supply the following information:
- Your project name/working title
- A brief description of your project (no more than 250 words)
- The earliest possible start date of your project
- The latest possible start date of your project
- The expected duration of your project (if known)
- The expected FTE need for your project
- Any existing project documentation such as cases for support
- Any relevant background reading, such as critical research papers
- Any software languages, frameworks, libraries, tools and platforms you expect to use
- Whether or not this is a funded project
- If it is a funded project, what stage of funding you are at
- If funding comes from a research grant, the funding council and award number if known
If you have any questions, please contact the relevant Challenge Lead.
Project scoping
Once a request is submitted, you will work together with the responsible Challenge Lead to capture and condense the project scope into a project brief document. The aim of this stage is to clarify the initial project idea, define a set of basic project parameters, resources required, financial arrangements and fit to Institute's priorities.
The scoping document is then submitted to a monthly Research Engineering planning meeting where a decision is taken on whether the group can support the project, given the resources required and project alignment with REG's and the Institute's mission.
If a positive decision is taken, REG commits to offer resources to the project and can contribute to the funding proposal if this is agreed.
Project start
If the project is approved at the REG planning meeting and if the funding is secured, we can progress to allocate REG resources. Before the start date of the project, REG will staff the project taking into account the expertise needed and internal resource constraints.
