Digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) are people who provide vital technical contributions to modern research. They work in the areas of research software, research data and research computing infrastructure, designing, building and maintaining technical solutions and infrastructure using specialist skills and best practices.

The dRTP space is developing rapidly and, while the research software domain has become widely recognised through Research Software Engineering community, all the areas represented by dRTPs are continuing to develop and evolve. The role of the Research Software Engineer (RSE), a term coined back in 2012, is perhaps best known at present due to the emergence of RSE roles at many universities, research-related organisations and in industry. However, dRTPs may, equally, be people who are classed as researchers, but who have a focus on technical work.

STEP-UP is developing the communities and opportunities for dRTPs in the London region and beyond. The information on this page will be expanded over the coming months to provide more detail and resources for dRTPs.

The STEP-UP project team
April 2025