UK splashes 158m on research e-infrastructure

The United Kingdom is set to make a 158m investment in e-infrastructure to power growth and innovation in research centres, computerworld reported on Monday.The money includes an extra 13m chipped in by the chancellor in his Autumn statement.The government said in a statement that UK scientists and businesses will have access to the most sophisticated technology, keeping them at the cutting edge of research and development.Minister for universities and science David Willetts outlined the plans on Thursday.The investment includes 43m for ARCHER, a new national supercomputer to support advanced research, such as complex chemistry and climate science, while helping industry design new products.Willetts said, We should not think of infrastructure as just roads and railways, its also the networks and systems that underpin our world-leading science and research base.As part of the expenditure, 30m will be given to the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, supporting research into the latest product development software.Another 24m is for high capacity data storage across the Research Councils and there is 31m to improve high capacity networks, including JANET which helps the higher education community share large amounts of research data more easily.In addition, 19m is allocated for specialist supercomputers in areas such as particle physics and astronomy, weather forecasting and climate change, and genome analysis.And 4.75m is being given to the UK Space Agency to support the collection and storage of data from satellites; and another 6.5m is set aside to establish a research fund for collaborative university projects to improve access to e-infrastructure.The government says all the investment is in addition to the ring-fenced science and research budget.
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