Covid-19

Connecting the global community to accelerate groundbreaking SARS-CoV-2 research.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In 2020, the world faced its latest pandemic, Covid-19 caused by a novel virus in the coronavirus family (SARS-CoV-2). The novelty of this new virus posed a unique challenge to scientific and medical research – how to respond effectively, with speed, when so much was unknown?

HECBIOSIM RESPONSE

This was a situation in which HECBioSim was able to demonstrate its strengths. A total of 2 million CPU node hours on UK Tier1 ARCHER/ARCHER2 and 1 million GPU hours across UK Tier2 JADE2/Bede was allocated in 2020–2021 solely for COVID-19 research projects.

We provided an online hub where the most up-to-date and reliable information on developments in the pandemic was curated on a daily basis and easily accessible. Researchers from the UK and internationally could find the latest SARS-CoV-2 structures and data. They could establish what work was being undertaken by teams in the community and how to get involved. We brokered connections between teams willing to do computation to teams doing experimentally focused work.

We also offered training and guidance on best practices for data sharing and transfer, as well as ongoing specialist technical support to both those wishing to use High-Performance Computing approaches in their biomolecular modelling and to computing centers wishing to onboard bleeding edge computational research in the absence of connections to the community.

IMPACT

By providing a single, reliable point of connection for access to UK research infrastructure for biomolecular simulation, we supported a coherent UK response, minimising unnecessary replication of research and maximizing inter- and cross-disciplinary communication. This resulted in significant contributions to the field as well as optimising UK infrastructure investments through the reduction in research duplication and increased coordination in a national emergency—find out more by exploring our featured case studies.