National award for UofG search engine platform
Published: 2 December 2025
A software platform developed at the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science which helps facilitate the development of AI-powered search engines has won a national award.
A software platform developed at the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science which helps facilitate the development of AI-powered search engines has won a national award.
The PyTerrier platform received the Best Search Project of the Year Award at the BCS Search Industry Awards on Wednesday 26 November.
Presented by the Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the awards recognise people, projects, and organisations around the world that have excelled in the design of search and information retrieval products and services.
PyTerrier builds on decades of information retrieval research and expertise at the University of Glasgow, extending the legacy of the Terrier platform, which has been continuously developed since its inception in 2001.
PyTerrier provides users with a suite of tools which use the Python programming language to enable the development of state-of-the-art AI-based search engines. It also helps scientists conduct experiments to develop new algorithms and AI for search.
Professor Craig Macdonald, Professor Iadh Ounis, and Dr Sean McAvaney lead the ongoing development of PyTerrier, working with Dr Nicola Tonelloto from the University of Pisa, and many other students and collaborators worldwide.
The research team recently released PyTerrier 1.0 after five years of development. The award specifically highlighted recent developments in PyTerrier, including introducing features for using Generative AI in search engines.
Professor Macdonald, who leads the project, said: “We've been working on PyTerrier since 2020, when it began as a project for us to work on during the first COVID-19 lockdown. As it developed, it has really changed the way we build AI powered search engines, and become an extensible ecosystem for plugging in different bits of state-of-the-art search technology.
“We have used PyTerrier in teaching search engines to Honours and Masters students since 2020. Today more than a thousand Glasgow students have used it in the last five years, and it is used by researchers and universities around the world.
“PyTerrier has really changed the way we do research into search engines - eight PhD students in our group are using and contributing to the platform, along with four recent PhD graduates. We’re delighted that our work has been recognised by the BCS with this award.”
First published: 2 December 2025