How is the UK’s first National Supercomputing Centre – EPCC – working to cement the UK’s role as a leader in high-performance computing?
For more than three decades, EPCC, part of the University of Edinburgh, has been a driving force behind supercomputing innovation in the UK. Over the last ten years, its mission has expanded to encompass data science and artificial intelligence (AI), positioning EPCC at the forefront of the technologies reshaping research, industry, and public services. As the UK’s first designated National Supercomputing Centre, EPCC works at scale with government, academia, and industry to accelerate the adoption of breakthrough digital technologies and translate computing capability into economic and societal value.
Driving national innovation capability
Founded in 1990 by the University of Edinburgh as the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, now simply known as EPCC, the Centre has evolved into a national engine for innovation in advanced computing, data science, and AI. Today, it plays a central role in shaping and delivering UK government ambitions by turning cutting-edge research and infrastructure into practical capability, new services, and competitive advantage for the UK.
UK National Supercomputing Centre
In 2025, EPCC was named the UK’s first National Supercomputing Centre, placing it at the heart of the government’s UK Compute Roadmap – the national strategy to build world-leading supercomputing and AI infrastructure and expertise.
As part of a planned network of National Supercomputing Centres, EPCC operates as a hub of innovation and expertise, lowering barriers to advanced compute and catalysing new collaborations across industry, academia, and the public sector. These Centres are central to the UK’s ambition to lead globally in AI and HPC — stimulating economic growth, transforming public services and accelerating the development and deployment of next-generation technologies. This innovation-led approach builds on EPCC’s 30-year track record of translating compute capability into real-world impact.
Pilot: UK AI Factory Antenna
EPCC is playing a pivotal role in strengthening the UK’s AI innovation ecosystem and re-engaging with the wider European HPC and AI community through the Pilot: UK AI Factory Antenna (Pilot-UKAIFA) – a €10m (£8.6m) jointly-funded EU–UK initiative launched in 2025.
Co-funded by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), 13 AI Factory Antennas are being established across Europe to integrate compute, data and talent, accelerating applied AI innovation and collaboration, building on the 19 AI Factories that have been established. Pilot-UKAIFA connects UK organisations directly into this ecosystem, with the joint UK funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Through Pilot-UKAIFA, EPCC will enable UK businesses to access advanced compute and AI resources, participate in applied AI projects, and test novel approaches in real operational contexts. Projects will be supported by EPCC’s Edinburgh International Data Facility and European AI Factory infrastructure, complemented by skills development, training, and networking delivered with UK and European AI competence centres.
Pilot-UKAIFA is delivered by EPCC in partnership with the HammerHAI AI Factory, coordinated by HLRS (High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart), alongside a consortium of leading German research institutions.
National computational platforms for innovation
EPCC plays a key role in the development, evolution, and operation of the computational platforms that underpin UK research and innovation. Over the past 30 years, it has run all but one of the UK’s National HPC Services — ensuring that world-class systems deliver maximum value for science, engineering, and industry.
ARCHER2: National Supercomputing Service
ARCHER2, the UK’s current National Supercomputing Service, is a 5,860-node HPE Cray EX system capable of 28 petaflops. It provides a flexible, high-impact environment for advanced research and innovation across disciplines.
Through ARCHER2’s user support, software development and outreach programmes, EPCC strengthens research capability, improves software sustainability, and expands the societal relevance of supercomputing.
Independent analysis shows ARCHER2 enabled over £4.2bn in UK economic benefit during its five-year operational period, with £3.7bn driven by research and development undertaken directly on the system.
Cirrus: UKRI National Compute Resource
The New Cirrus is a state-of-the-art 256-node HPE Cray EX4000 system designed to support simulation, modelling, data science, and AI-driven innovation. As an early delivery of the UK Compute Roadmap, the new Cirrus will more than double in size through a £19.5m UKRI investment, significantly enhancing UK computational capacity. Available for research and innovation in its current form today, the expanded resources are expected to be available from late 2026.
Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF)
The Edinburgh International Data Facility is a world-class private research cloud engineered to support data-driven innovation. Designed and operated by EPCC, EIDF underpins the Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region Deal’s Data-Driven Innovation programme and continuously evolves in response to user needs.
EIDF provides access to advanced and emerging AI technologies, including Cerebras CS-3 Wafer-Scale Engines — with EPCC hosting the largest research deployment of this technology in Europe. This capability enables new classes of AI research and rapid experimentation at scale.
EPCC also operates Trusted Research Environments, including the Scottish National Safe Haven, enabling secure, governed innovation using sensitive data for projects delivering clear public benefit.
Tursa: Extreme-scale computing for UK physics
EPCC hosts Tursa, a GPU-based extreme-scaling system for the DiRAC consortium, providing advanced compute and expert service support for the UK’s physics research community and enabling discovery at the limits of computational science.
Collaboration, research, and economic growth
Innovation at EPCC is rooted in collaboration. The Centre delivers advanced computational research addressing complex scientific and engineering challenges, working closely with universities, institutes, government, and industry to accelerate impact.
EPCC builds and leads large-scale, multi-partner research consortia that translate computation into competitive advantage. For example, the £17m VECTA UKRI Prosperity Partnership with Rolls-Royce applies advanced modelling and simulation to accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuels and technologies.
Education and skills for the future
Developing talent is central to EPCC’s innovation mission. It trains the next generation of specialists through PhDs and MSc programmes in high-performance computing, data science and AI, aligned with real-world industry needs.
Early-career innovation capability is supported through internships, apprenticeships and placements, ensuring that best practice developed at EPCC is disseminated across the UK.
EPCC leads national initiatives to strengthen digital skills, including CAKE (Computational Abilities Knowledge Exchange NetworkPlus) – a £1.6m UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure programme supporting knowledge exchange across the UK’s compute landscape.
Further innovation in skills delivery is driven through the UKRI Digital Research Technical Professional (dRTP) Skills NetworkPlus, including:
- CHARTED, improving training for HPC and research software engineering.
- DRIFT, strengthening skills for research facilitators and multidisciplinary teams.
Looking ahead
As the first UK National Supercomputing Centre, EPCC will continue to deliver resilient national services while acting as a catalyst for innovation – bridging research, industry, skills, and policy, as it prepares to host the Next National Supercomputing Service, the replacement for ARCHER2.
By aligning its platforms, expertise and partnerships with the UK Compute Roadmap and global technology trends, EPCC is ensuring that advanced computing continues to power UK competitiveness, scientific leadership, and long-term economic growth through research, innovation, and adoption.
