A new strategic partnership formed to support UK business growth has been announced by the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre. VEC @Hartree will bring together the VEC’s strong expertise in developing virtual prototypes into solutions for industry with STFC’s world renowned expertise in computational science and its UK leading resources in High Performance Computing (HPC).
The partnership will accelerate innovation across industry sectors such as aerospace, energy and automotive and will reduce the risk involved in new product and process development.
STFC’s new Hartree Centre for HPC, located at its Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, was created to enable new collaborations between industry, academia and Government to develop multi-disciplinary projects that will promote UK economic growth. It is also home to the most powerful supercomputer in the UK, and the largest computer in the world dedicated to software development.
Professor John Bancroft, Director of the STFC Hartree Centre stated, “The inclusion of the VEC is an important component of the Hartree Centre as it is acknowledged as a leader in its field and has a strong track record of delivering innovative and practical solutions to advanced manufacturing organisations. Providing complimentary expertise within one centre, the VEC, along with other partner organisations, will help us to deliver capabilities to business that will lower research and development costs, drastically reduce physical testing, and accelerate the time to market for innovative new products and processes.”
Director of the VEC, Dr Gillian Murray, said, “The shift to digital tools within design and manufacturing is enabling companies worldwide to significantly reduce costs and development timescales whilst increasing the customisation of new products. The VEC, underpinned by research excellence from the University of Liverpool, is excited to be part of the Hartree Centre and our combined strengths will provide a critical mass of capabilities and facilities. We have been working closely with STFC since our inception and look forward to strengthening our collaboration through the VEC @Hartree model.”
STFC’s Hartree Centre and the VEC are both located at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, which sits within the Sci-Tech Daresbury national science and innovation campus.
