A new £3.25m Centre of Excellence for High Performance Computing (HPC) is bringing together the best academic expertise in the N8 Research Partnership.
The new Regional Centre, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will provide a shared facility for high performance computing (HPC) for the Universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York – an established partnership of research-intensive universities that collectively form the N8 collaboration.
The facility which is based at the University of Leeds, and will be run jointly with the University of Manchester, is of a scale currently not readily available to the partners.
The Centre of Excellence will provide a major boost to world-class research in the partner institutions, allowing researchers to build more realistic computational models and undertake more complex analyses in fields as diverse as healthcare (eg modelling organs and their interactions, discovering causal patterns in health data), sustainable energy (eg modelling wave energy conversion), and aerospace (eg large-scale simulation for developing green air transport). The shared facility will make it easier for institutions to collaborate on research and will create opportunities to engage more effectively with business and the community.
Jake Gannon, Head of Applications, Systems & Services in the Computing Services Department, said: “This facility will augment Liverpool’s upcoming £1 million investment in HPC, giving academics seamless access between the local facility and the N8 facility when the extra computer power is required.”
Academic leadership for the Centre will be provided by Professors Chris Taylor, who is Associate Vice President Research and Business Engagement in Manchester, and David Hogg, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation in Leeds.
To find out more about the N8 Research Partnership visit: www.n8research.org.uk.