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Accelerate scientificbreakthroughsMicrosoft Azure for research

2 Accelerate scientific breakthroughs

Contents46810121414A science-led recoveryHelp your research team achieve more using the cloudSolve global problems at speedSharp minds need powerful technologyAdvanced scientific tools in easy reachUseful toolsNext stepsAccelerate scientific breakthroughs 3

A science-ledrecoveryAs the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic,economic disruption is colliding with problems likeclimate change. To map the way forward in a postcarbon future, we need smart minds working together –and time is of the essence.A new dawn for usWe have the expertiseHow science is done nowThe world is at a historic inflection point.By investing in a science-led economicrecovery, we can build a stronger andmore resilient future for all. With the rightstrategy to guide us, we can transitionfaster to a knowledge nation built on bigideas and innovative technologies—onethat’s ready to tackle problems like climatechange, food and energy security, globalcompetitiveness, our aging population,and disease.We have the research talent to spearhead ascience-led recovery. Universities across theworld are researching fields like chemistry,earth sciences, and engineering; andresearchers are pioneering everything fromsmart farms and agricultural robotics tosolutions for space junk.Sparking intense collaboration amongresearchers globally, the coronavirusoutbreak accelerated a new researchculture characterised by open datasets,rapid-fire exchange of knowledge onservers and an explosion in public papers.Scientists talk of an “extraordinary amount”of information.This strategy must focus on future-proofingour research capability to support excellentresearch at scale and must empower theentire innovation sector to work as one toconceive and commercialise the best ideas.Many of their discoveries can literally belife-changing. For instance, surgeons cannow see CT and MRI images in 3D duringsurgery. These crucial medical imagesexpand their reality, enabling them tooperate with greater precision. Or takea solar-based system that offers Kenyanfarmers personalised recommendationsand solutions through their mobilephones, to help them raise better qualityhighyield crops and make more money. Orconsider the impact of a new generationof solar panels that can efficiently producehydrogen gas out of thin air, of a novelprocess for cleaning up crude oil spills usingmagnets, or of a new vaccine that blocksthe chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis.It’s ideas like these that will ensure ourfuture. But to support their inception, weneed to equip our researchers for howscience is done now.4 Accelerate scientific breakthroughsTo contribute to the myriad incrementalincreases in knowledge that nourish thegreatest innovations, our researchers needto surface important findings, analysemassive datasets and share them so theycan reproduce each other’s experiments.To spearhead a science-led recovery, theyneed sustainable technology infrastructurethat supports open, collaborative science– plus the skills to use it to discover andcommercialise valuable ideas faster.

Extend your capabilities with oursMicrosoft Azure lets your research harness one of the world’s mostpowerful public clouds for research. Infinitely scalable compute resources based globally 99.95% monthly availability with 24/7/365 support Secure, on-demand access to vast storage and supercomputing resources No additional investment in capital assets or IT infrastructure, freeingresearch funding Sustainable zero emissions technologyDiving into dataThe public cloudMore and more, today’s academic research teams are using highperformance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), andmachine learning (ML) to delve into complex questions and powerscientific enquiry across huge datasets. Scaling from desktopsto supercomputers, they require large amounts of data storage,processing and analysis. Many are now using cloud computing tohelp meet these needs in a cost-effective way.The public cloud provides modern research infrastructure to extendyour own. Far more flexible than investing in your own technology,it allows researchers to dial up storage, compute when needed, anddial down when they’re done. With appropriate security to protectintellectual property (IP), academic research teams can shareimmense datasets with research partners and industry, acceleratinggame-changing discoveries.“Modern science is being called upon to solve globalchallenges at a rapidly increasing rate. The academic modelthat has driven research outputs in the past is strugglingto keep up with the pace of change and a new focus onconverting research into action The scientific communityneeds to embrace collaborative practises and harness thepower of globally connected IT infrastructure to makesolutions available when and where they are needed most.”Dr Justin Perry, Research Scientist and Project Leader, CSIROAccelerate scientific breakthroughs 5

Help your researchteam achieve moreusing the cloudResearchers around the world are using Microsoft Azureto accelerate their research. It provides an open, flexible,global platform that supports multiple programminglanguages, tools, and frameworks to enable faster results.Faster discoveriesWork easily with huge datasetsand use AI, HPC and Azurediscipline-specific tools toarrive at new insight faster.Virtual research teamsShare and manage code acrossresearch communities usingGitHub repositories. IntegrateIoT for remote sensing dataand enable hybrid working foryour team in a crisis.6 Accelerate scientific breakthroughs

Data managementand governanceMake research discoverable,apply data policy andprotect university IP with abest practice platform forautomating governance.Cost controlPay for computing resourcesonly when needed, plus useAzure tools to optimise cloudworkload costs, reducing totalcost of ownership.Quality controlStudents can view project data,upload results, and run analyticsworkloads with role-based accessprotecting data integrity.Best practice codeSoftware engineers andresearchers can use Azure’sbestpractice coding toolsetsto create custom researchsoftware to solve new scientificchallenges.Accelerate scientific breakthroughs 7

Solve globalproblems at speedTo find answers to big challenges like climate changeand pandemics, scientists in data-intensive fields likeclimatology and epidemiology are interrogating immensedatasets to reveal the complex interplay of factors drivingnatural phenomena and disease. The Azure platform helpsthem turn evidence to conclusions more quickly.Faster discoveriesSolve complex problemswith big dataMake headway in data-intensive fields likeastrophysics, geophysics, and genomics.In minutes, researchers can set up costeffective Azure infrastructure to ingest,store, and share their biggest datasets.It’s easy to add computing power tofurther investigate data using modelling,simulations, and analysis. Or to importAzure Open Datasets to train ML modelsusing public data on weather, city safety,and more.Build on what came beforeSee things differentlyWith thousands of new findings comingout of the worldwide scientific communitydaily, Azure AI can help researchersdigest the “extraordinary amount” ofinformation and stay on top of their fieldsby surfacing relevant finds and data inscientific literature. And to help researchersreproduce findings and take the nextstep, Azure makes information morediscoverable with best-practice governanceand collaboration.Arrive at new insight with big data toolsbuilt for the Azure platform and availableon demand, including HPC, AI, ML, anddata analytics. Azure helps your team adaptcode to the world of big data and thecloud, plus you can use our intelligent toolsto reveal new patterns, relationships andtrends in research data. There’s no need forcapital outlay—simply switch the tools youneed on or off to suit research timelines.CASE STUDYIoT helps preserve ancient Roman ruinsA team of engineers at the Politecnico di Milano provided archeologistssurveying a restricted underground site in Rome with the smart-sensortechnology they needed to determine the impact of environmental factorson the sculptures and frescoes. The team used Azure to create a simplifiedIoT-based system that could deliver the collected data in customisable,easy-to-use graphs, with different tabs for different sensors and filters.“ When the archeologists were shown they could simply selectthe metric and a time window to see the data readings, it wasfantastic for them. The Azure solution provided the data theyneeded in a way that made it valuable.”Luca Mottola: Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Massey8 Accelerate scientific breakthroughs

Virtual research teamsCollaborationAzure lets everyone working on a researchchallenge access the latest data so youcan collaborate across entire disciplinesand industries. Data integrity is protectedby access controls with multiple layers ofsecurity and governance, so you can cocreate knowledge with global experts andcitizen scientists alike. On BRUVnet, they’repopulating the world’s largest trainingdataset of fish species this way. With Trove,you can pay people for the photos youneed to train ML models.Easily share ideas, methodologyand researchStartling innovations can result whenresearchers connect data points andinsights across existing knowledge andscrutinise and reproduce each other’s work.Azure enables this with an open, flexible,fast, efficient infrastructure for sharing largedatasets and findings. With research data attheir fingertips, researchers can collaborateeasily, plus replicate experiment results onother researchers’ datasets to strengthenthe foundation for future enquiry.Resilient in a crisisThe COVID-19 pandemic has underscoredthe importance of resilient researchinfrastructure that supports flexible workstyles, including remote working andhybrid working. With Azure, you can keepresearchers connected and productivewherever they are. You can easily integrateTeams, SharePoint, and OneDrive sothey can disseminate their results andcommunicate more effectively. Power BIhelps them manage shifting priorities withup-to-the-minute reporting tools.CASE STUDYUsing Azure to accelerate research atprominent Pakistani research centerResearchers at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences inPakistan were having trouble computing, storing, and managing the data fromtheir DNA sequences. Azure created the perfect environment for acceleratedresearch by providing scalable storage capacity and effective computing power,which users could access simultaneously. The platform was also used to create aninterface for their learning website and store thousands of video-lectures.“Azure has helped through massively scalable storage. Theinfrastructure on Azure streamlined our platform to matchour needs, providing us with a single platform to monitor andanalyse our data requirements and scale accordingly.”Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, Assistant Professor, Jamil ur Rehman Center for Genome ResearchAccelerate scientific breakthroughs 9