Showcase 2025

The PSDI Showcase 2025 took place on 17 September 2025 at the Library of Birmingham. The event brought together researchers, policy makers, infrastructure specialists, and community members to celebrate the launch of the UK’s first Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure and to explore what comes next. 

The day offered an opportunity to: 

• • Celebrate the progress made so far in developing PSDI. 
  • Explore our key resources and meet the teams behind their development. 
  • Hear from national and academic leaders in research data. 
  • Share ideas and challenges to shape PSDI’s future priorities. 

As part of the PSDI Showcase, a live illustrator captured the key moments of the day — from talks and discussions to the exhibition stands. The finished artwork offers a vibrant snapshot of the ideas and people that shaped the event.

The programme ran from registration in the morning through to closing statements in the late afternoon, with keynotes, academic talks, an exhibition, lightning talks from new collaborators, and an interactive discussion session. 

Santiago Molina, UKRI – Senior Policy Manager, Digital Research Infrastructure 

Santiago Molina presented on “Building the UK’s Digital Research Infrastructures”, outlining the UKRI DRI Programme — a national effort to develop interconnected systems, services, and skills to support research in the digital age. 

LinkedIn: Santiago M.
Website: Digital Research Infrastructure Programme – UKRI

Dr Paul Richards, UKRI – Open Research Strategy Lead

Paul Richards delivered a talk on “Developing UKRI’s Research Data Policy”, describing the aims of UKRI’s new integrated policy for sharing and managing research data and digital outputs, and its relevance to the PSDI community. 

LinkedIn: Paul Richards
Website: Developing UKRI’s research data policy – UK Research and Innovation – Citizen Space

Professor Jacqui Cole – University of Cambridge

Professor Jacqui Cole shared her pioneering work in data-driven materials science, showing how AI and machine learning are accelerating the discovery of energy-sustainable materials. 

Website: https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/profile/prof-jacqui-cole/  

Attendees were able to meet the teams behind PSDI’s developing resources at the exhibition: 

• • Data Conversion – Samantha Pearman-Kanza 
  • Data Revival – Samuel Munday 
  • Cross Data Search – Mehmet Giritli 
  • Knowledge Base – Cerys Willoughby 
  • BioSim DR – James Gebbie-Rayet 

Each exhibitor demonstrated how their resource contributes to building a connected, FAIR research ecosystem. 

Samuel Munday – Data Revival

LinkedIn: Samuel Munday
Website: Data Revival

Cerys Willoughby – Knowledge Base

LinkedIn: Cerys Willoughby
Website: PSDI Knowledge Base

The Showcase also introduced PSDI’s new collaborators, each leading exciting projects across UK institutions: 

• • Elizaveta Suturina (University of Bath) – SimpNMR_data 
  • Professor Jacqui Cole (University of Cambridge) – Language model for magnetic materials 
  • James Kermode (University of Warwick) – Universal Hyper Active Learning 
  • Josh Bailey (Queen’s University Belfast) – Open repositories for flow battery data 
  • Sergio Vernuccio (University of Southampton) – ORKiM kinetic models repository 
  • Susana Garcia (Heriot-Watt University) – MOFevaluator for carbon capture 
  • Tahereh Nematiaram (University of Strathclyde) – BenchmarkSet-500 dataset 
  • Andrew Stewart (University College London) – Machine learning for electron microscopy 
  • Keith Butler (University College London) – LLMs for X-Ray diffraction analysis 

James Kermode – University of Warwick

Project: Universal Hyper Active Learning: A Data Pipeline to Accelerate Materials Discovery

LinkedIn

Susana Garcia – Heriot-Watt University

Project: The MOFevaluator: AI-Driven Holistic Assessment of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Carbon Capture and Beyond

LinkedIn

Keith Butler – University College London

Project: Towards Structure Solving as a Service: Large Language Models for X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Birmingham and contributed to the day. Your input is vital in helping PSDI continue to grow and respond to the needs of the community. 

If you haven’t already, please share your reflections using our form below.