DARESBURY, U.K., June 4 — Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson will today unveil a £313 million partnership with information technology leader IBM to boost Big Data research in the UK.

Following on from Government’s £113 million commitment in the Autumn Statement to expand the Hartree Centre at Daresbury over the next five years, IBM will further support the project with a package of technology and onsite expertise worth up to £200 million.

IBM’s contributions will include:

• access to the latest data-centric and cognitive computing technologies, including its world-class ‘Watson’ cognitive computing platform;
• at least 24 IBM researchers to be based at the Hartree Centre to work side-by-side with existing researchers;
• joint commercialization of intellectual property assets produced in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which runs the Hartree Centre.

Minister for Universities and Science Jo Johnson said: “We live in an information economy – from the smart devices we use every day to the super-computers that helped find the Higgs Boson, the power of advanced computing means we now have access to vast amounts of data.

“This partnership with IBM, which builds on our £113 million investment to expand the Hartree Centre, will help businesses make the best use of Big Data to develop better products and services that will boost productivity, drive growth and create jobs.”

Advanced data-centric and cognitive computing technologies enable non-computer specialists to gain insight from the vast amounts of data being generated today, and do so in a more natural, human-friendly way.  Delivered through the cloud, IBM’s Watson analyses high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. It continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions.

David Stokes, Chief Executive for IBM in the UK and Ireland, said: “We’re at the dawn of a new era of cognitive computing, during which advanced data-centric computing models and open innovation approaches will allow technology to greatly augment decision-making capabilities for business and government.

“The expansion of our collaboration with STFC builds upon Hartree’s successful engagement with industry and its record in commercializing technological developments, and provides a world-class environment using Watson and OpenPOWER technologies to extend the boundaries of Big Data and cognitive computing.”

The Hartree Centre will directly benefit from breakthrough innovations rapidly emerging from the OpenPOWER Foundation, an open development community backed by IBM, NVIDIA, Mellanox and well over 100 other organizations worldwide. The research program will leverage OpenPOWER high performance computing innovations to enable complex analytics on massive amounts of data.

The Hartree Centre is already helping businesses like Unilever and Glaxo SmithKline use high performance computing to improve the stability of home products such as fabric softeners and to pinpoint links between genes and diseases.

Professor John Womersley, Chief Executive of STFC, said: “Data intensive techniques are transforming every discipline of science, and connecting these capabilities to the needs of industry has the potential to revolutionize every business sector.

“The Government’s five-year investment in the Hartree Centre will deliver a step-change in capability in this area, and will bring in significant knowledge and expertise from IBM Research that will help ensure our science and industry remains at the very forefront of research and development.”

STFC and IBM will engage in collaborative projects with third parties and draw on the scientific excellence of UK universities to develop advanced software solutions to address real world challenges in academia, industry and government.

More than two dozen IBM researchers will be based at the Hartree Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury, and will work side-by-side with the Centre’s researchers to develop new tools, algorithms and approaches to Big Data that will help UK industry and commerce take greater advantage of the wealth of insights hidden in that data.

About IBM Research

Now entering its 70^th year, IBM Research continues to define the future of technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. IBM Research breakthroughs helped the company achieve an industry record 7,534 patents in 2014, marking the 22^nd consecutive year IBM topped the annual list of U.S. patent recipients. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology; five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees in the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information, visit www.research.ibm.com

STFC Hartree Centre

Part of the STFC Daresbury Laboratory, and located within the Sci-Tech Daresbury science and innovation campus, the Hartree Centre is driving growth and innovation between science and industry using intense computing.

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Source: IBM