UK SBS IT18160 UKRI Ada Lovelace Centre Software Development

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Ada Lovelace Centre (ALC), is being established as an integrated, cross-disciplinary data intensive science centre, for better exploitation of research carried out at our large scale National Facilities including the Diamond Light Source (DLS), the ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility, the Central Laser Facility (CLF) and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE). The Centre has the potential to transform research at the Facilities through a multidisciplinary approach to data processing, computer simulation and data analytics. The impact will be felt across the many science disciplines and communities these facilities support, including industry and academia. Problem to Be Solved 1. Develop options for Peta to Exa-scale database/data archive. 2. Develop GridFTP plugin for Data Management System to replicate ACL and posix permissions for 3rd party transfers. 3. Develop configuration for VMs on commercial cloud platforms to access STFC science data/resources. 4. Develop existing and new analysis environments to support STFC Facility science groups. 5. Develop UKAEA access to STFC computing resources (IRIS), including containerising HPC codes, deploying Spark cluster, and developing ML codes for anomaly detection on MAST data Who Are the Users As a National Facilities user and academic researcher I need to access my experimental data on appropriate compute resources so that I can process and analyse my experimental data to make more effective world-class scientific research discoveries for the benefits of society. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done The hardware infrastructure is in place and work has been carried out with the National Facilities to gather their requirements. There is a design and prototype of the Data Management system and a preliminary design for the virtual machine management. Existing Team The Software Engineering Group from the Scientific Computing Department is in place at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The supplier’s team will be working with this team – and will also have occasional interactions with the National Facilities teams. STFC will also be recruiting internal staff who are expected to arrive later in the year. The supplier’s team will be expected to work closely with the recruited internal staff, and to perform a complete and thorough handover to them. Current Phase Beta Work Location Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX and Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB. Working Arrangments Mon-Fri 9-5 and occasional remote working. Security Clearance Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) and Disclosure Scotland Additional T&Cs T&S as per UKRI policy. Skills & Experience Demonstrate how you will apply your expertise in the following areas to ensure the successful delivery of the respective projects (See “Problem to be solved”): Project1. Large scale databases, data archives and catalogues. Project2. C, GRIDFTP, x509 certificate authentication. Project3. Ansible, Python, Networks, security and virtual private networks. Project4. Ansible, Linux, compilation expertise, python/bash scripting. Project5. C, C++, or Fortran 90, UNIX, Python, HPC applications, MPI libraries, containerisation, ML techniques - Tensorflow or Caffe Nice to Haves No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Technical solution Approach and methodology Estimated timeframes for the work How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Cultural Fit Criteria Demonstrate how you will work with other people throughout this project Demonstrate how you will solve problems throughout this project Demonstrate how you will share knowledge and expertise throughout this project Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Written proposal Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the estimated value of this opportunity is up to £600k (ex vat) including any options to extend, although there is no commitment to spend up to this amount. the estimated value of the initial contract term is up to £520k (ex vat).