Inclusive futures: User cultural stories and mapping pathways for NFCS
This project explores how federated digital research infrastructures, such as National Federated Compute Services, shape scientific collaboration and culture.
About the project
The project runs from August 2025 to July 2026. It is funded by NetworkPlus – a new UKRI-funded initiative (EPSRC) aimed at strengthening collaboration and knowledge exchange between researchers, service providers, and stakeholders.
Background
In today’s digital science, we rely on large-scale computing infrastructures to:
- collaborate
- share data, and
- generate new knowledge.
Large investments are being made into large-scale computing, both at an exascale level and for AI. The national coordination of large-scale computing has become crucial – a National Federated Compute Services (NFCS). However, this work is interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral.
A critical challenge lies in bridging communities with distinctive epistemic cultures – diverse ways of knowing, reasoning, and doing (Knorr-Cetina, 1999) – that shape how they navigate and respond to changes in their work. These cultural differences make it difficult to anticipate and plan. How will we respond to the efforts to expand and consolidate the federation of digital research infrastructures (DRIs)?
The literature highlights that changes in the workplace driven by digital technologies may create new forms of:
- meta-work – invisible and unrecognised work (Hatton, 2017; Star & Strauss, 1999), or
- boundary work – work needed to:
- maintain and create new distinctions between groups, and
- protect existing or acquire new practices (Langley et al., 2019).
These cultural differences engender challenges that may create new forms of exclusion. They thereby inhibit the federation of DRIs.
This project aims to:
- identify the cultural challenges that hinder collaboration within federated DRIs, and
- collaboratively develop pathways for more inclusive community building (e.g., new modes of communication and collaboration), which can inform the NFCS roadmaps.
It seeks to address the following questions:
- What new cultural challenges and opportunities do users face when using NFCS?
- What kinds of stories and cultural expectations influence who gets to participate and how?
- How do different communities experience and shape these digital environments?
- How can we ensure that the future of digital science is inclusive, ethical, and sustainable?
Aims
The project aims to achieve three specific objectives.
1. Identify cultural challenges and opportunities
From August 2025 until January 2026 the project explored how users from diverse communities in the public, private and academic sectors navigate NFCS. These communities included:
- data professionals
- researchers, and
- practitioners.
We uncovered the cultural narratives (user stories) that influence how these communities respond to changes in DRIs. Outputs are:
- A scoping review: Inclusive Futures of Federated Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI). A Scoping Review of Cultural Challenges to Federation.
- We interviewed 31 people from distinct disciplines and sectors (public, private academia). Francisco presented a number of examples of relevance to Arts & Humanities. Themes from the interviews are presented as six tensions along two axes.
Two Axes
Power dimension
- centralisation vs decentralisation
- invisibility vs visibility
- privacy vs surveillance/privatisation
Epistemic dimension
- empowerment vs disempowerment
- uncertainty vs certainty
- unity vs disunity
For more information, please see our poster that summarises this work.
2. Explore inclusive futures
The project organised three Speculative Transformation Workshops with representatives from across diverse communities. The workshops were designed to:
- envision future scenarios for more inclusive federated computing, and
- identify pathways and gaps to achieve them.
These workshops were in:
- London: 17 February 2026 – UCL Knowledge Lab, University College London.
- Daresbury: 24 February 2026 – Hartree Centre, Daresbury.
- Edinburgh: 17 March 2026 – Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh.
3. Shape policy and practice
A stakeholder roundtable held in London will bring together decision-makers. We will co-develop recommendations for inclusive community-building activities within NFCS. In achieving these objectives, the project addresses critical aspects of community and governance. We will focus on enhancing engagement and inclusivity within these pillars in several meaningful ways.
First, it emphasises the importance of:
- user stories (cultural narratives), and
- co-developed pathways and recommendations.
These elements are designed to inform the federated roadmaps. We will ensure that they are tailored to support inclusivity throughout the community. This approach:
Methodology
To address these questions and objectives, the project will use a case study approach that includes communities from:
- academia (Conservation and Heritage Science),
- the public sector (NHS England and UK Atomic Energy Authority), and
- industry (STFC clusters).
The proposed activities include interviews and surveys with users from these communities. These will explore the real-world experiences and challenges of working with federated computing. Then, through a series of Speculative Transformation (ST) Workshops, participants from the case studies will imagine future scenarios for federated DRIs – ones that are more interoperable, ethical, and inclusive.
These speculative sessions will:
- spark ideas, and
- help identify practical steps toward change.
Finally, the project will host a stakeholder roundtable with:
- policymakers
- infrastructure leaders, and
- community members.
This will turn these ideas into recommendations for federation roadmaps.
To ensure that the outputs are helpful for the NetworkPlus team, the project includes an advisory board with:
- member from the case studies, and
- expertise from the UK DRI ecosystem.
To deliver the outputs and achieve the outcomes, UCL will work with:
- Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) at the University of Edinburgh and
- the Hartree Centre (STFC).
The Hartree Centre is a high-performance computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence research facility. It focuses on industry-led challenges. Hartree provides a link with communities from:
- academia,
- public sector, and
- commercial organisations.
These communities will engage in Speculative Transformation workshops to:
- co-develop futures scenarios
- co-creating practical strategies and pathways that will feed into the NFCS Roadmaps.
The University of Edinburgh Futures Institute is an interdisciplinary research centre renowned for its use of participatory, future-facing methods. It will design and facilitate the Speculative Workshops. Together, these partners offer relevant and complementary expertise.
This project builds on the Applied Learning Programme Framework developed by UCL. It was an output from a recently funded UKRI-DSIT project led by Louise Chisholm (November 2023–March 2025).
Team
Project leader
UCL members
Hartree Centre members
- Dr Nia Alexandrova, Training Manager
- Dr Simon Goodchild, Senior Data Scientist
Edinburgh Futures Institute, the University of Edinburgh members
Contact us
UCL Knowledge Lab
Department of Culture, Communication and Media
UCL Institute of Education
University College London
23-29 Emerald Street
London WC1N 3QS
