Two leading supercomputing facilities in the UK will collaborate on a new national computing competence centre as part of a Europe-wide network.

The University of Edinburgh’s Supercomputing Centre (EPCC) will work with the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre on the EuroCC@UK project, forming part of a wider network of more than 30 facilities funded by the European Commission.

According to the university, the EuroCC network aims to “advance supercomputing and AI research and innovation” across Europe, and “enhance connections” with industry, academia and the public sector.

It will run “collaborative programmes to facilitate the sharing of best practice, expertise and excellence in advanced computing”.

The UK centre will focus on improving the use and uptake of AI tech, high-performance computing and data analytics in industry and education.

Commenting on the collaboration, Professor Mark Parsons, Director of EPCC, said: “The UK has worked successfully with HPC centres across Europe for many years.

“Most recently this has been through the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, where EPCC and the Hartree Centre have represented the UK for the past decade.

“The new network of National Competence Centres in HPC being established by the EuroCC project continues and grows this successful collaboration with our European counterparts and also the collaboration between EPCC and the Hartree Centre.”

Researchers will develop training, software support, and industry engagement programmes to aid businesses with knowledge and skills to deal with the vast amounts of data created as industries become more tech-focused.

The centre will also focus on helping small companies benefit from these technologies.

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Alison Kennedy, Director of the Hartree Centre, said: “The National Competence Centre allows the UK to contribute to, and to learn from, international best practice in supporting the wider uptake of high-performance computing, high-performance data analytics and AI by industry and academia.

“With the increase in UK investment in computing e-infrastructure, the findings will enable the UK to better target our resources to make the most effective use of the new capacity for economic and societal benefit.”

EuroCC is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 as part of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and through national funding programmes within the partner countries.