The AI for Science Strategy, backed by up to £137m in funding, aims to position the UK as world-leading in AI-driven science, and enable unprecedented progress in pressing areas, including drug discovery and climate science.
Compute access
The University’s supercomputing centre, EPCC in its national role is at the heart of the compute pillar of the Government’s plan, providing a vital access point for the compute power essential to make AI-enabled breakthroughs that could enhance living standards and advance medical science.
To realise this, EPCC will host a new national data repository, linked with a sister facility at Bristol. Together, these data storage facilities will ensure critical, robust compute access for researchers.
Sustainability
Underlining the commitment to sustainability, the new strategy highlights how EPCC is seeking to re-use waste heat, through the Geobattery Research project, exploring whether the mine workings in Midlothian can be used to power the heat pumps of local homes and businesses.
Work is also being progressed on providing heat to the Easter Bush Campus, once the next National Supercomputer is operational in 2027.
Industry links
Further strengthening the links between the University and the AI industry, Cerebras – the company behind the AI Accelerator computer cluster that EPCC hosts – commits to deepening its collaboration with EPCC and aims to increase its presence across the region, growing its local workforce, and accelerating innovation.
The strategy also outlines how the University of Edinburgh is already contributing to world-changing science, in a successful collaboration with Isambard AI and Imperial College London to advance the science of medical imaging through AI.