United Kingdom-Birmingham: Computer-related services – Framework Lead

The current contract for Computer-related services – Framework Lead is projected to end on 04-MAY-20 and may be available for retender. The Provision of Research Technology Partnership and Solutions.
The University of Birmingham has established an integrated research environment known as BEAR (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research) as a set of interrelated services to support many aspects of the research workflow. This tender is to extend the existing research partnership, both by enhancing the existing services and potentially adding new services. We emphasise that this is not just, or even primarily, a hardware procurement.
Currently we offer the following services under the BEAR banner:
– BlueBEAR, our Linux-based batch processing High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster;
– BEAR Store, a Research Data Archive (RDA) exclusively for long term storage of data associated with publications and a Research Data Store (RDS) for work-in-progress and supporting a sync-and-share service for collaboration both on and off campus (BEAR DataShare);
– BEAR Windows, a Windows-based HPC service;
– BEAR database service. The service runs on MariaDB which is compatible with MySQL. The service runs in a high-availability cluster and is available both from the BlueBEAR cluster and from the campus network;
– BEAR View, offering visualisation, collaboration and large scale video conferencing facilities including a 4 metre by 2 metre display screen, 2 and 3-D imaging and head tracking;
– BEAR Hosting, a hosting service for servers or storage purchased by research groups through the BEAR framework. For such purchases, compute nodes and storage are charged at component prices; costs for all supporting infrastructure (racks, switches and of course electricity) are usually met by IT Services;
– BEAR Plus, additional computational resources available to Birmingham researchers through the regional MidPlus consortium and other national resources.
A Research Data Network (RDN) to cater for the fast transmission of high volume data, generated by scientific equipment on campus and are developing other services:
– BEAR Render, a compute cluster optimised for rendering images and videos;
– A private cloud for research computing, initially based around OpenStack but which may also develop with other related and associated technology and software;
– BEAR Galaxy (for computational biologists) – a platform for data intensive biomedical research.
These services have developed with the support of a 4 year framework, where an ongoing relationship with a supplier has been central to the expansion of the previous services, especially a complete replacement of the previous BlueBEAR cluster, and the introduction of allied services.
The University of Birmingham has a wide range of research areas, and attracting users from outside the usual STEM disciplines has been crucial to winning recurrent funding, as opposed to one-off investments from the University. Support for continuing this outreach activity is an essential requirement in this framework; to be clear, this is not just, or even primarily, a hardware procurement. Examples of support that has been offered under the current framework include:
– In conjunction with the University, outreach to potential users of the service across the University;
– Sponsorship of, and attendance at, events such as our User Forums and the annual postgraduate conference, where postgraduates are invited to give talks and/or posters describing their use of the BEAR services in their research;
– Preparation of case studies in conjunction with researchers;
– preparation and production of other publicity materials to be used jointly by the University and the supplier to promote both parties both internally and through external media.
Common procurement vocabulary (CPV): 72500000, 72540000,