The University of Liverpool is to establish a new facility combining high performance computing and materials science that will form part of a major new research centre for the North of England.
The £10 million Materials Computational Discovery Centre will form part of the £235 million Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials and Innovation, announced by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement, which will be based at the University of Manchester with satellite hubs at the Universities of Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield.
The MCDC at Liverpool will integrate high performance computing and materials science and foster close collaboration between academia and industry on the discovery of new materials and their analysis.
Provost for Research, Professor Ian Greer, said: “Our expertise in materials science is world-leading and we are delighted to be part of an initiative that will allow some of the most important sectors of the economy to benefit from innovations in this area.”
Discovery of new materials
The facilities will enable the discovery and evaluation of new materials for a wide range of industrial sectors, from nanofabrication to nuclear engineering, with for example, engineers and scientists working together to tailor novel materials to create sustainable structures for the power and transport industries.
Chancellor, George Osborne, said: “A few months ago there were no proposals for major scientific institutions in the North of England. We are committing a massive quarter of a billion pound investment in a new Sir Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials science in Manchester, with branches in Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield.”
The Hartree Centre, which is part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council and develops software to model, simulate and visualise the research and development of products, will become a partner in the MCDC, providing capability in high performance computing.
