UBC Investment Stories from the 2024/25 Research Support Fund.
1Story One: ARC OnDemand
(RSF Category: Research Resources)
In 2025, UBC’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC) launched ARC OnDemand. This user-friendly web portal simplifies access to the university’s high-performance computing (HPC) resources, particularly the ARC Sockeye HPC platform. This initiative was designed to lower barriers to HPC use by eliminating the need for command-line interfaces and complex scripting, making advanced computing tools more accessible to researchers across all disciplines. The development of ARC OnDemand represents a significant investment in UBC’s research infrastructure, aligning with the university's commitment to fostering innovation and supporting researchers with diverse computational needs. By providing an intuitive interface, ARC OnDemand enables researchers to launch applications such as RStudio, JupyterHub, and Virtual Desktops with ease, facilitating a wide range of interactive computing activities. This initiative enhances UBC’s research capabilities by streamlining access to and use of HPC resources, allowing researchers to focus more on scientific inquiries and less on navigating complex computing environments. The integration of ARC OnDemand with the Sockeye cluster ensures access to the computational power necessary for data-intensive research, accelerating the pace of discovery. The platform enhances UBC’s standing as a leader in providing accessible and efficient research computing solutions. It is expected to support an even broader range of research activities in the future, further solidifying UBC’s role in advancing knowledge and innovation.
2Story Two: Research Ethics Board Exchange Integration
(RSF Category: Regulatory Requirements and Accreditation)
The Research Ethics Board Exchange (REBX) initiative represents a significant institutional investment in strengthening UBC’s research infrastructure in collaborative ethics review. Officially launched for UBC researchers in June 2024 within UBC’s RISe (Research Information Systems) platform, REBX enables the secure exchange of research ethics applications with the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta. This tri-institutional partnership establishes an interoperable framework that facilitates coordinated ethics review for multi-site research projects involving human participants. REBX enables secure sharing of information, reducing duplication, streamlining multi-site reviews, and improving approval timelines.
One institution serves as the lead site for initial review, while partner sites rely on this review with site-specific adjustments, ensuring oversight and coordinated renewals. From an institutional perspective, REBX enhances UBC’s capacity to support large-scale, collaborative, and time-sensitive research projects. It strengthens UBC’s alignment with national priorities on interoperability and ethics harmonization. The initiative also complements UBC’s ongoing efforts to modernize research administration systems and digital infrastructure, supporting researchers in meeting compliance requirements while focusing their time on discovery and innovation.
UBC’s integration into REBX aligns with national priorities for ethics harmonization, complements the university’s digital modernization efforts, and supports large-scale, multi-institutional research. Designed to scale, the system enhances efficiency, transparency, and UBC’s position as a leader in responsible, collaborative research. REB Exchange is an initiative funded by Alberta Innovates, the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia, and Huron Consulting.