Build the first and only overarching UK community including representatives from the different disciplines that exploit DEM and related methods from both academia and industry. The community will embed diversity and inclusiveness in its composition, governance, and activities.

Promote the use of open-source software for particulate solids simulations and best practices in validation, benchmarking, and research data management according to FAIR principles.

Develop code benchmarking cases and best-practice guidelines.

Identify major barriers to using open-source codes, and to accessing high-performance computing (HPC), in order to take advantage of the UK’s digital research infrastructure.

Hold physical events at different UK locations supplemented by online events for networking, research dissemination, facilitated discussions and training provision.

Deliver bespoke training to lower these identified barriers, prioritising the needs of underrepresented groups, with a specific focus on female participation.

Training on using open-source DEM codes (LAMMPS, MercuryDPM and YADE), using HPC (ARCHER2), handling and post-processing large data volumes, reproducible research, and FAIR data principles will be delivered by code developers, EPCC, the Computational Science Centre for Research Communities (CoSeC) and other subject experts.

Through community consultation, identify gaps in granular simulation capabilities which inhibit high-impact scientific discovery and/or slow the transition from workstations to HPC and from CPUs to GPUs to unlock improved energy efficiency and performance.

Undertake one or more high-priority code development projects based on this community needs analysis, led by CoSeC, which will be of greatest benefit to the community.

Create a five-year vision for the community.

Produce a viable plan for a Collaborative Computational Project in particulate solids simulations. By this means, CCC-ParaSolS will continue into the medium/long term.