Background information and Reports
The UK Chemical Database Service has a long history of operation from
Daresbury Laboratory.
The Chemical Database Service was set up, managed and operated by the CDS group based at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory until the end of 2012. The Service had been funded over the years by a number of EPSRC Grants. For instance grant GR/S70623/01 spanned the the period 01/04/04 to 31/03/08. More recently the EPSRC has moved to a tender based process.
More recently the EPSRC funded National Chemical Database Service (NCDS) was operated by the Royal Society of Chemical. It continues to be funded by the EPSRC as the Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS).
It is now operated by a consortium comprising the University of Southampton and the STFC Scientific Computing Department.
The Chemical Database Service was set up, managed and operated by the CDS group based at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory until the end of 2012. The Service had been funded over the years by a number of EPSRC Grants. For instance grant GR/S70623/01 spanned the the period 01/04/04 to 31/03/08. More recently the EPSRC has moved to a tender based process.
More recently the EPSRC funded National Chemical Database Service (NCDS) was operated by the Royal Society of Chemical. It continues to be funded by the EPSRC as the Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS).
It is now operated by a consortium comprising the University of Southampton and the STFC Scientific Computing Department.
History of CDS provision from Daresbury
The history of the Service extends back to the late 1970s. A comprehensive review article gives an overview of the grant based Service until the end of 2004. This is available free of charge via the publisher's websiteSome details of the old Daresbury Service are still available from the CDS/DL webpages. Links to the remaining useful information are included in the pulldown menu at the top of the web site homepage. However, much of this material has been removed to avoid confusion with the current EPSRC service. What remains mostly relates to the CrystalWorks component. CrystalWorks is also available to UK academic users via the PSDS portal.
For a period from 2008 onwards chemical database provision was funded through a new contract arrangements with the EPSRC Contract R5-E3-34 was awarded to the CDS group at Daresbury following a competitive European Open Tender exercise.
Later service provision
From the beginning of 2013 the Royal Society of Chemistry operated the main national UK Chemical Database Service on behalf of the EPSRC. However, Daresbury continued to develop and provide access to the CrystalWorks component, which enables searching of some of the main crystallographic databases.Support for the service has continued with EPSRC funding transferring to the current Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS). This an EPSRC National Research Facility in the UK provided by a consortium comprising the University of Southampton and the STFC Scientific Computing Department. The consortium took over responsibility for the service from the beginning of 2019, but access via the RSC has continues until July 2019.
The PSDS is now available via its own portal. It initially largely mirrors the service as provided by the RSC, but many future changes and innovations are planned.
Daresbury Reports to the EPSRC and User Newsletters
Annual Reports on the Service were provided to the EPSRC. Links to these are included below. A number of user Research Highlights were provided with each Annual Report, and an Archive of these is still available online. The Service also provided regular Newsletters for the user community.- Report for 2005
- Report for 2006
- Report for 2007
- Research Highlights Archive
- User Newsletter Archive
- Statement of Need for a National Chemical Database Facility (submitted 2012)
some links within documents to EPSRC related material appear to be missing
