Team led by Dr Gunnar Möller wins Software Sustainability Institute Grant Award

A project for curating software for high-performance numerical simulations of quantum materials led by PQM’s head of group Dr Gunnar Möller was selected for funding in the first round of Research Software Maintenance Awards made by the Software Sustainability Institute [now rebranded as Institute for Research Software], as one of only 13 projects nationwide which went to 10 different institutions (see funder news report). The awards were given out after a fierce competition, with more than 350 initial expressions of interest and nearly 150 full applications received.

Our project will bring together an international team of developers for two important physics software libraries: DiagHam and ALPS (Algorithms and Libraries for Physics Simulations), both of which target the understanding of strongly correlated materials.

The grant of £149,999.77 will support the improvement and future-proofing the underlying computer codes’ overall robustness and create new possibilities to use the software from both projects jointly. This goal will be supported by a dedicated Research Software Engineer to join the team in the near future, and a group of project partners from across Europe and the US. A developer workshop will bring together the whole team and provide opportunities for future developers to join. Our project will also provide documentation, enhance user-friendliness and organise a community workshop to train future users.