Government award to power up industry’s cutting edge computing

The independent digital engineering research and technology organisation based in Bristol, will use the funding to design a unique High Performance Computing (HPC) resource which will be industrially secure with diverse architecture that maximises its flexibility. 

It aims to help fast-track solutions for global challenges, notably climate change as well as major sustainability issues such as hydrogen technology and pioneering energy projects including harvesting solar energy from space.

Chief executive Sam Paice explained: “Technology has a vital role to play in helping us deal with major and complex societal challenges, and finding solutions demands a novel and dynamic form of computing. With this funding, we’re poised to deliver a computer system that can cater for a wide spectrum of problems, keep pace with the relentless march of innovation and be flexible enough to manage extremely complex technology.”

The project will complement other investments made into national infrastructure, including the University of Bristol’s Isambard AI machine. 

Science, Innovation and Research minister Andrew Griffith, said: “The UK is renowned for its world-class research and development and as technology advances faster than ever, our £39m Research and Innovation Organisations Infrastructure Fund is ensuring more ambitious teams have the tools to drive cutting-edge innovation in a competitive landscape for years to come.

“Projects like the Centre for Modelling and Simulation’s high performance computing system can help to pioneer solutions to complex, global challenges like climate change that benefit us all, while boosting the local economy with more highly skilled jobs.”  

Last year CFMS secured investment from the UK Space Agency’s Space Cluster Infrastructure Fund last year to create a pilot data centre capability for next generation space engineering, robotics, simulation and AI. 

Paice concluded: “The funding we’ve secured in recent months and the support we’ve received from industry is a ringing endorsement of our expertise in cutting-edge technology such as AI and digital engineering.”