6th June 2012

Welsh business boosted by national supercomputing network

Wales has become the first country in the UK to boast a distributed national supercomputing network, meaning Welsh businesses can now access some of the most advanced computing technology in the world, along with the training, outreach and technical support to exploit it effectively.

This announcement marks the latest milestone for High Performance Computing (HPC) Wales, which was formed to manage a shared service collaboration of the Universities in Wales. Our unique venture enables Welsh companies and university researchers to speed up innovation by accessing the latest supercomputing technology.

High performance computing technology has the capacity to handle and analyse massive amounts of data at high speed, bringing new products and services to the market faster. HPC Wales is of great strategic importance to the Welsh economy and aims to turn Wales into a leading international centre for specialist supercomputing research applications, ensuring that Wales grows its knowledge economy and has a strong international competitive advantage.

The scale and distributed nature of the undertaking, combined with its open access to business, makes it unprecedented in the UK and the rest of Europe. The venture has been made possible with support of £24m from the Welsh Government and the Welsh European Funding Office, and £10m from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The infrastructure and some services have been developed in partnership with Fujitsu, producers of the world’s fastest supercomputer.

At an event addressed by the Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales at the Senedd, an invited audience from Welsh Government, the Universities in Wales, and business and educational institutions, celebrated the recent announcement that Fujitsu, technology service provider for HPC Wales, has awarded seven fully-funded studentships across the marine energy, environment and life science sectors, generating over £500,000 inward investment in Wales. Over the next two years, HPC Wales and Fujitsu will fund a total of 20 studentships across key priority sectors in Wales.

To read more of this HPCWales article click here