About HPC Wales
HPC Wales aims to:
- Speed up innovation for commercial success
- Maximise research impact
- Develop world-class, high-level skills in Wales
- Build awareness of HPC
- Stimulate ICT industry growth
- Facilitate university-business collaboration
- Create new businesses and jobs
- Increase inward investment in Wales
HPC Wales will give Wales a supercomputing capacity and network at a scale not attempted anywhere else in the UK or Europe - with the support of £24 million from the Welsh Government, including from the EU Convergence programmes and £10m from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
High performance computing technology has the capacity to handle and analyse massive amounts of data at high speed.
Tasks that can take months using normal computers can be done in days or even minutes. It is used to model and solve highly complex problems across a range of high value sectors.
The distributed nature and scale of the HPC project in Wales, plus the open access to business, makes it unique in its scale, nature and ambition.
The cutting-edge computing facilities will be available for use by businesses working independently or in collaboration with academics and will establish Wales as a key international centre for specialist computational research.
Funding for the project comes from the following :
- £19m from ERDF and ESF European funds channelled through WEFO.
- £10m from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
- £4m from collaborating institutions.
- £5m from the Welsh Government / HEFCW
- £2m private sector and research income
The £40m investment will cover infrastructure development, equipment, software research, management and operational costs over the first five year to 2015 when HPC Wales will become self supporting and sustainable.
HPC Wales consists of three elements:
- World-class HPC capacity - the purchase of large scale super computing technology to complement existing facilities in Swansea and Cardiff with high-speed links to satellite spokes in the five major research universities in Wales. The network will link to business innovation centres and research centres in Wales and globally.
- HPC Institute – this will deliver advanced research, focussed on strategic partnerships in both academic and private sector, with priority given to research with direct economic impacts and benefits.
- HPC Academy - the sustainability of the Research Institute will depend upon the ability to develop technical research skills and a pipeline of talent, i.e. capability. The Academy will develop HPC skills training and will be open to researchers in Welsh SMEs and researchers in universities working collaboratively with businesses.
