Proposal for a Tier 2 Centre - HPC Midlands Plus

High performance computing (HPC) technology is used to provide solutions for challenging problems, which require advanced computer power. It can perform simulations orders of magnitudes quicker than an individual Personal Computer, resulting in a reduction in the time taken from months to days or even minutes. There is an associated capability to be able to generate, move about, and analyse very large quantities of data exceptionally quickly.

High performance computing technology now pervades our everyday lives, for example from financial transactions, the design of aircraft engines, through to animated film production. In the Engineering and Physical Sciences across the consortium, HPC has to date been specifically used to address global challenges including Energy, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Healthcare and Transport. Moving forwards we are looking at how we can develop HPC to have an impact in emergent areas, such as Quantum Technologies.

This proposal will build on partnerships in the Midlands and with Queen Mary for the delivery of HPC through the formation of the HPC Midlands Plus Centre to researchers in Higher Education Institutes in the Midlands, and beyond, to support excellent scientific and engineering research. It will also grow its significant portfolio of industrially relevant research and enable industrial partners to access its world-class facilities to benefit the UK economy. Underpinning this will be a commitment from the Universities to support the development of software that can make the optimal use of the system.

The EPSRC Tier 2 Centre for HPC hosted by Loughborough with Aston, Birmingham, Leicester, Queen Mary, Nottingham and Warwick Universities as partners will not only provide a crucial facility but will also form a Centre for training and developing a critical mass of highly trained people with advanced scientific computational skills. It will help the UK to realise its vision for a tiered HPC landscape, with a substantial investment in people to develop the software required to efficiently utilise the hardware. Thus, it will also develop the concept of software as supported infrastructure.

The main users and beneficiaries of this Centre outside of the academic community will be industrial collaborators, although in the wider sense the UK population will benefit through developments facilitated to enhance quality of life, health and well-being. The UK economy will benefit through enhancements to the research capability, efficiency, knowledge and skills of businesses, attracting R&D investments from global business, leading specifically to wealth creation and economic prosperity. It is anticipated that access to HPC will also lead to commercialisation and the creation of new processes, products (including software) and services.