The AIRR gives access to a suite of advanced supercomputers which will provide specialist AI compute capabilities to researchers, academia and industry. 

Successful applicants will gain access to Isambard-AI based at the University of Bristol, and Dawn supercomputer at the University of Cambridge. This aims to enhance research and development capabilities and drive innovation in the UK. 

AIRR is a partnership between government, universities and leading tech companies including Dell and Nvidia. The government is investing significantly in the Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR clusters and will have invested about £350 million by 2030.

The government’s Sovereign AI Unit, set up by the The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), is behind the programme which will give startups access to the supercomputers. The unit was set up with the goal to “harness AI’s capabilities to unlock economic growth and enhance UK national security.”

The UK is the third-largest leader in the AI market, behind the US and China. Increased compute power could allow local AI leaders to train models, test concepts and run simulations, to scale their ideas and contribute to sector growth. 

Plans from the UK government to spend an extra £1 billion to scale up compute power by a factor of 20 aim to support the UK’s ambitions to maintain their competitive position and be an AI leader.

Applicants have access to the service via three routes: Rapid Access, for UK-registered micro, small and medium organisations at early stage development; Gateway, for researchers testing new concepts; or Innovator, for larger, more ambitious projects. 

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Around 10% of AIRR’s capacity, based on the Isambard‑AI and Dawn supercomputers, is being made available through the programme, giving startups access to computing power worth around £20 million a year and removing barriers to scaling in the UK. 

Additional routes to access are to be introduced as the programme develops. 

AI Minister, Kanishka Narayan said: “ [the] government [is] acting as an investment amplifier, driving tens of billions of investments in tech ventures. Establishing a standalone Sovereign AI unit that will operate at market pace, equipped with £500 million, investing into high-potential British AI startups”

He added, that they are a “government making sure you have the compute [power] to turn AI ideas into economic opportunity”.