The importance of the UK academic research and innovation sector for frontier compute

Computers underpin the modern economy, but current computing technologies cannot deliver the performance, energy efficiency or sustainability the UK and the world requires. The future of computing must move beyond traditional silicon chips which face physical limits in speed and energy efficiency, and struggle to solve complex, large-scale problems in medicine, climate modelling, and artificial intelligence.

Research and innovation in chip design, software and new materials have seeded new forms of computing, including quantum, photonic, neuromorphic, and biological systems. Future compute is likely to involve integrated, hybrid systems with tailored solutions for specific applications, such as optical components to improve communication speed or neuromorphic chips for efficient signal processing.

This shift is an opportunity for the UK to capitalise on a world-leading academic research and innovation system to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth for the UK.

A strong UK science base

EPSRC funds the UKs vibrant and active academic research community in computer science and has over £320m currently invested through more than 300 awards. We support a range of existing initiatives in future compute, including quantum, photonic, neuromorphic, and biological compute. Much of the fundamental research in areas like mathematics, materials science and physical sciences that has provided strong foundations in these areas was supported by EPSRC and in many cases began decades ago. New directions, unsolved research challenges and potential applications in these developing areas continue to be addressed through both community driven and strategic research funding.

EPSRC also funds research into the fields that will address the computing challenges beyond these initiatives. We have a growing portfolio of awards in next-generation computing, particularly in connection with new architectures and alternative computing models. These are the beginnings of the computing technologies that will be the foundations for the innovations beyond quantum, photonic, neuromorphic, and biological compute.

Linking the strong UK research and innovation ecosystem to experts, policymakers and industry leaders is critical to deriving future growth, productivity, and global leadership from EPSRC’s investment. Transitioning lab scale proof-of-concept technologies into reliable, scalable, fault tolerant hardware systems requires overcoming foundational barriers driven by physical, materials science and engineering constraints. Key challenges include addressing bottlenecks of manufacturing and scaling, defining standards, interoperable software development and matching the cost efficiency of traditional silicon chips.

EPSRC Neuromorphic portfolio

Over the last two years, EPSRC has strategically expanded its investments to galvanise the UK neuromorphic community to prioritise among fundamental research endeavours and demonstrate the potential of this field for future compute.

There is a vibrant UK research ecosystem in this area, building on UK strengths in architecture, photonics compute and memristors. Neuromorphic computing benefits include ultra-low power for AI, including edge and mobile AI, on device learning and real-time sensor integration.

The EPSRC programme is designed to make a step change in linking neuromorphic computing research to applications over the next 5 years and bring it into public and policy conversations by demonstrating its potential to solve the energy consumption bottleneck threatening environmental sustainability and AI progress. We are working closely with cross-UKRI partners in these interventions, as well as key interested stakeholders, including DSIT and National Security and Defence partners.

Frontier computing for the UK

EPSRC has been engaging with the research community to understand what the future of computing might look like. This is an area of future economic growth, national security and resilience, and there is considerable interest from government and national security and defence stakeholders, even in early-stage research.

We found there has been considerable activity to define different tyles of compute, but little on the capability and capacity of the UK research and innovation community. We need to understand where the UK could or should be leading, collaborating, or building capability, so that we can focus our efforts in the right place, for the benefit of the UK.

We also need skills and talent development to support this, in the right places and across career stages.

Understanding which computing paradigms the UK should focus on needs to include expertise from across the social, environmental and biological sciences (where appropriate). It also needs to consider business and the wider innovation ecosystem, working in partnership with socio-technical and economic perspectives.

Funding opportunity

EPSRC has launched an open funding opportunity for a Network Plus to provide a comprehensive assessment of UK academic capabilities in this space and to bring together the UK community over five years.

This will encompass the new architectures, hardware platforms and software associated with future compute including distributed compute, sustainable, resilient and secure compute. It will consider technologies alongside the potential societal and economic benefits, with a focus on benefits for the UK.

Further details can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder and EPSRC are hosting a webinar on 3 September 15:00-16:30 – register if you would like to find out more.

Technology and Innovation programme activities

techUK bring members, industry stakeholders, and UK Government together to champion emerging technologies as an integral part of the UK economy. We help to create an environment where innovation can flourish, helping our members to build relationships, showcase their technology, and grow their business. Visit the programme page here.