Our Story
From a final-year project to a global open-access hub for computational science
Biotational began with a challenge I faced during my final year at the University of Essex, while studying Biological Sciences.
For my final-year research project — “Species Distribution of Ring-Necked Parakeet” — I stepped into the world of computational science. What I quickly discovered was how difficult it was to find the right resources. Despite being an area full of potential, computational science was still relatively new and highly interdisciplinary.
I searched online, asked fellow students and my cohort, but ran into the same problem again and again — there was no central, accessible place to find the tools, datasets, or cross-disciplinary knowledge needed to work in this space.
That gap became the seed of an idea: what if there was a single, open-access hub where computational scientists — from biology, physics, computer science, data science, and beyond — could share their work, access resources, and collaborate freely?