In a vast warehouse on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Britain’s most powerful supercomputer, Archer2, hums and purrs.
The sprawling machine is made up of thousands of computer processors stored in dozens of rows of cabinets, featuring its own dedicated power systems and water tanks.
Completed in 2022, the supercomputer has enabled scientists to run enormous simulations, crunching huge amounts of data through its 750,000 processor cores.
With power equivalent to a quarter of a million laptops, experts have used the machine to perform cutting-edge research on nuclear fusion, heart disease, the loss of the world’s ice sheets and Covid-19.
Just weeks ago, staff at Edinburgh University’s Advanced Computing Facility were preparing to go even further. They had been awarded £800m in government funding under the Conservatives, earmarked to build a so-called “exascale” system far more powerful than Archer2.
But the current Government has shocked academics and technologists by tearing up the plans.
With demands from Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, that departments find savings to plug an alleged “black hole” in Britain’s finances, the supercomputer project – as well as a £500m plan to buy up artificial intelligence processors – was among the first projects to feel the swing of the Treasury’s axe.
Threat to UK’s global standing
The backlash from industry has been intense. One source said: “I don’t think they anticipated the level of pushback.”
Andrew Griffith, the shadow technology secretary, said: “The response I’ve heard privately from the sector to this decision has been savage.
“It calls into doubt the UK’s credentials as a science and technology superpower.”
The about-turn has left the University of Edinburgh out of pocket after spending £31m on the project, with Sir Peter Mathieson, its vice chancellor, demanding answers.
There are fears that other major spending projects in science and technology could be at risk. Britain had planned to spend £2.5bn on quantum computing and more than £1bn on semiconductors over the next decade.
Much of this funding is yet to be allocated, having been kicked down the road to future spending reviews. One former government source said: “I don’t think anything is safe.”
Last year a government-commissioned review warned the nation was falling dangerously behind on computer resources.
The UK had already slipped from third in the world in terms of computing capacity in 2005, behind only the US and Japan, to tenth in 2022.
The latest data, from industry analysts Top500, shows Britain has now drifted to number 12 behind China, France and Saudi Arabia.