The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre has launched its new strategy, reaffirming its commitment to unlocking the high growth potential of advanced digital technologies for UK industry.
The UK’s only supercomputing centre dedicated to industry engagement, it enables businesses to adopt the skills and digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, to overcome industry challenges.
Located at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, at Sci-Tech Daresbury in the Liverpool City Region, the Hartree Centre is driving productivity, innovation and economic growth in UK organisations, large and small.
Unlocking industrial growth
The Hartree Centre Strategy 2024 to 2029 lays out a five-year plan to build on its achievements and continue to deliver significant societal and economic impact for the UK.
It also sets out how the Hartree Centre will continue to work with collaborative partners to bridge the gap between science and industry and drive socio-economic growth.
This includes through its flagship programme, the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI), a £210 million partnership with IBM. Since its launch in 2021, the HNCDI has made substantial progress, enabling businesses to upskill staff, explore and take advantage of advanced digital technologies.
Making a difference
The Hartree Centre’s strategic priorities are aligned with UKRI’s transforming tomorrow together strategy and STFC’s strategic delivery plan, acknowledging its role in delivering a collective mission.
Innovation
Positioning the Hartree Centre as the go-to trusted partner to help UK industry advance understanding and adoption of innovative advanced digital technologies.
Places
Ensuring the Hartree Centre is recognised as the UK’s national facility for providing industry access to world-class compute resources.
People and careers
Training UK industry and the public sector to meet the increasing demand for digital skills so that the UK can actively take advantage of the latest advanced technologies.
Ideas
Exploiting our facilities and expertise to explore and develop transformative technologies and ground-breaking scientific advancements that address national priorities in:
- high performance computing
- AI
- quantum and extreme-scale
- cloud computing
Impact
Creating industrial, societal and economic impact across the UK by empowering industry to exploit, embed and adopt the latest advanced digital technologies.
Organisation
Operating a modern, sustainable, and effective Hartree Centre that supports the development, safety and wellbeing of its diverse teams.
Empowering digital innovation and skills
A central aspect of the strategy involves expanding the Hartree Centre’s capacity to support UK businesses with a new state-of-the-art facility that will support its rapidly expanding supercomputing and AI activities.
This opens up the potential to collaborate with more organisations and host larger systems, supporting the UK government’s wider plans to advance compute and AI for the benefit of industry and society.
Furthermore, the strategy confirms the Hartree Centre’s continued commitment to investing in its people and creating a sustainable and inclusive workplace. Through initiatives aimed at upskilling the workforce, fostering diversity and promoting environmental sustainability, the Hartree Centre is nurturing the talent and resources needed to drive digital innovation in the UK.
The future of digital innovation
Kate Royse, Director of the Hartree Centre, stated:
The Hartree Centre stands out for its continuous focus on translating emerging digital technologies to solve challenges and deliver meaningful societal and economic impact for UK industry.
I couldn’t be prouder of our commitment to the future of supercomputing and AI and their application to real business challenges, fostering societal and economic impact in the UK. Our unique ability to work at the intersection of research and innovation enables us to place cutting edge digital solutions into the hands of UK businesses, regardless of their size.
By setting out our direction for the next five years, I am excited that through collaboration, innovation, and talent development, we are well positioned to shape the future of digital innovation in the UK.
Powering innovation through collaboration
Examples of the strategic priorities in action are demonstrated by existing projects underway, as highlighted through some case studies in the strategy.
This includes a collaboration with safesteps™, a digital healthcare company that is creating personalised patient care plans to reduce the risk of falls, particularly in older people.
It also highlights an ongoing partnership with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to develop digital twins of fusion power plants in the mission to make fusion energy a commercial reality.
Top image: Credit: STFC Hartree Centre
