ICT: Innovation

(asked on 19th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to develop supercomputer technology in the UK.


Answered by
Lord Henley Portrait
Lord Henley
This question was answered on 25th June 2019

In the Spring Statement, the Government announced £79 million funding for the next national supercomputer ARCHER2. The supercomputer will be hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than a traditional desktop computer and will be used to run massive research simulations. This project is being delivered and supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Engineering and Physical Sciences, and the Natural Environment Research Councils.

E-infrastructure, including supercomputing, is also a critical strand within UKRI’s national research and innovation infrastructure roadmap programme. This is seeking to increase our understanding of the UK’s current capabilities and future requirements with a final report expected later in 2019. We want to ensure that future investments in High Performance Computing will deliver benefits across research and innovation, including to tech start-ups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. (SMEs). The Government will be working with UKRI and Tech UK on UKRI’s e-infrastructure strategy which will be engaging with tech-SMEs on how they can access high-performance computing for the benefit of their businesses.

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