Dreaming Spires Founded
Dreaming Spires was founded by Edd in 2020 after his Masters' year at the University of Oxford, to respond to the growing need for digital solutions in academic research.
First Project
The first project was to <a class="has-text-info" href="/portfolio/project_spotlight_auction_scraper/">track the sale of African Tribal Art</a> with Oxford’s Anthropology Department. This project also saw Mark join the team, who became the first trainee at Dreaming Spires.
Freelance Development Model
Within the first year, we were engaging with the UK and US's <a class="has-text-info" href="/portfolio/rse_stories/">research software engineering communities</a>, and developed our hybrid development approach; augmenting our in-house team with freelance expertise to bring the flexibility and value required in a research context.
Open Source Contributions
In 2021, we made our first major contribution to an open-source project in the form of a <a class="has-text-primary" href="/portfolio/fastapi_users/">verification system for FastAPI Users</a>. This open-source package is now in use by thousands of people all over the world.
Startup Consulting
We partnered with the Nuffield Department of Health to develop project <a class="has-text-primary" href="/portfolio/gpas/">GPAS for COVID-19 response</a>, transforming the pre-existing SP3 platform into industrial-grade software. This project grew into EIT Pathogena, an industry-leading genomic analysis company.
Approved Supplier
During this year, we became approved suppliers at multiple universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Kings and Harvard, which allowed us to more quickly respond to requests for projects.
Incorporation
The start of 2022 saw us make the step to being a fully fledged company, with Mark as our CEO. We found this opened the door to many more opportunities as structurally this is more cohesive with university administration systems.
Large-scale project management
As the number of projects we were operating across grew, we began our first large-scale project with several freelancers operating simultaneously on a large web framework project.
Regular Collaboration
Over the course of this year, we became regular consultants for the <a href="/portfolio/big_data_institute_presentation/" class="has-text-primary">Big Data Institute</a>, allowing us to become key partners with the university, before helping them transition to an internal team as they expanded.
Team Expansion
As the need for projects increased, we increased the size of our internal team to meet demand.
RSECon24 Sponsorship
We were very pleased to be one of the <a href="/portfolio/rse_con/" class="has-text-primary">sponsors of RSECon24</a>, which allowed us to contribute back to the community of Research Software Engineers, while also increasing our visibility.
Rebrand
Quite recently, we changed our slogan to more closely represent what we do. At Dreaming Spires, we believe in responding to feedback from our clients, and are always striving to improve clarity.
Promising Opportunities
Since our beginning, we've been a key partner across many universities in delivering successful digital projects across the entire life cycle, from grant application to project maintenance, and handing over to internal teams.<br><br>Yet our focus remains - digital research expertise, delivered flexibly and at scale, at excellent value.
