New Hartree Centre strategy — making the future of computing a reality for UK industry

The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre has launched its new strategy, reaffirming its commitment to unlocking the high growth potential of advanced digital technologies for UK industry.

Unlocking industrial growth

The Hartree Centre Strategy 2024 – 2029 lays out a five-year plan to build on its achievements and continue to deliver significant societal and economic impact for the UK.

It also sets out how the Hartree Centre will continue to work with collaborative partners to bridge the gap between science and industry and drive socio-economic growth.  

This includes through its flagship programme, the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI), a £210 million partnership with IBM which, since its launch in 2021, has made substantial progress enabling businesses to upskill staff, explore and take advantage of advanced digital technologies.  

Making a difference

The Hartree Centre strategic priorities are aligned with UKRI’s Transforming Tomorrow Together strategy and STFC’s strategic delivery plan, acknowledging its role in delivering a collective mission.

As such, these priorities are:

• Innovation: Positioning the Hartree Centre as the go-to trusted partner to help UK industry advance understanding and adoption of innovative advanced digital technologies
• Places: Ensuring the Hartree Centre is recognised as the UK’s national facility for providing industry access to world-class compute resources.
• People and Careers: Training UK industry and the public sector to meet the increasing demand for digital skills so that the UK can actively take advantage of the latest advanced technologies.
• Ideas: Exploiting our facilities and expertise to explore and develop transformative technologies and ground-breaking scientific advancements that address national priorities in HPC, AI, quantum and extreme-scale and cloud computing.
• Impact: Creating industrial, societal and economic impact across the UK by empowering industry to exploit, embed and adopt the latest advanced digital technologies.
• Organisation: Operating a modern, sustainable, and effective Hartree Centre that supports the development, safety and wellbeing of its diverse teams

The future of digital innovation

Kate Royse, Director of the Hartree Centre, stated: “The Hartree Centre stands out for its continuous focus on translating emerging digital technologies to solve challenges and deliver meaningful societal and economic impact for UK industry.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our commitment to the future of supercomputing and AI and their application to real business challenges, fostering societal and economic impact in the UK. Our unique ability to work at the intersection of research and innovation enables us to place cutting edge digital solutions into the hands of UK businesses, regardless of their size.

“By setting out our direction for the next five years, I am excited that through collaboration, innovation, and talent development, we are well positioned to shape the future of digital innovation in the UK.”