Parallel programming call 2026

Are you developing research software that is computationally intensive, and do you wish to redesign or extend it so that it can exploit computational resources more efficiently? Does your code take a long time to complete, and does it have potential to reduce runtime by distributing work?

To help you with these kinds of questions, we open this call for projects to let you experience how the Research Engineering team can help you accomplish more when developing code/software. The aim of this call is to: 

• Increase the scientific impact of the software by reducing runtime and enabling larger scale experiments and using infrastructure in a responsible way.  
• Promote reproducibility and sustainability through following software development and open science (FAIR) best practices.  
• Build expertise in parallel computing within the research community. 

The research engineering team has extensive experience with Python and we can achieve the most in Python projects; however, this call is open for other languages (e.g. Julia, Fortran, C++, R, Rust) as well.

In this RDM Story we show what research engineering can do for a project to improve the research. Our support was recently recognized as one of our team members won the SURF Research Support Champions Award 2025. 

How to apply

Fill in the proposal form and describe the project, the problems you are facing or opportunities for improvement, and how the Research Engineering team can contribute to your project. 

A good proposal addresses most of the points below:

• Show the impact for the wider research community;
• Show how code and data will be made openly accessible as much as possible to contribute to the research community;
• Show why the expertise of the research engineering team is necessary for your project;
• Explain how the result of the project will be maintained in the future.

We are specifically looking for projects that are computationally (or data) intensive and where parallelization can yield considerable efficiency gains. This is not always easy to judge beforehand. If you are unsure, feel free to contact the Research Engineering team to discuss the project before submitting a proposal. Furthermore, we value projects that can be reused. Additionally, preference will be given to projects that are vendor‑agnostic, platform‑independent and use open standards and open‑source dependencies. 

Who can apply?

This call is open for all researchers at Utrecht University from all faculties and disciplines. The main applicant should have a permanent position as a researcher at Utrecht University and commit to be actively involved in the project as a project lead. We also expect technical commitment from the research team, although this does not necessarily have to come from the main applicant.

Support you get

Selected projects will receive up to 0.5 FTE for one year of research engineering support. You will be supported by two or more of our team members. We will provide you with: 

• expertise on compute and data services;
• best practices and principles for programming code;
• expertise on research software;
• 10,000 hours’ worth of SURF credits (if needed).

Even if your proposal is ultimately declined, you still will receive at least one consultation meeting with research engineers about your project. 

Deadline for proposal

Submit the proposal before 15 June 2026 08:00. Fill out the proposal form.

We will review the applications and communicate the result before 1 July 2026. 

Contact and information

For more information and questions, you can reach us at research.engineering@uu.nl.

Help from the Research Engineering team with other kinds of research projects

If you need help with software support that is not in scope of this call, check the Open call and feel free to get in touch with the research engineering team. We are here to help you.

We plan to have more frequent calls with different topics. If you want to stay informed about our next calls, please check our website.