Government welcomes £313m big data research partnership with IBM

IBM will contribute up to £200m in funding and resources to Hartree Centre for intense computing driving innovation

The government has welcomed a technology partnership with IBM that aims to boost big data research in the UK.

The partnership will be worth a total of £313m and builds on George Osborne's Autumn Statement pledge to invest £113m into expanding the Hartree Centre for computing innovation at Daresbury over the next five years.

IBM will invest an additional resources into the science centre for computational scientists, data scientists and software developers with what's described as a "package of technology and onsite expertise worth up to £200m".

Contributions from IBM will include "access to the latest data-centric and cognitive computing technologies", including the Watson cognitive computing platform, and will see "at least 24" IBM researchers "to be based at the Hartree Centre to work side-by-side with existing researchers".

The deal also includes a "joint commercialization of intellectual property assets produced in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which runs the Hartree Centre".

Minister for Universities and Science Jo Johnson, the Conservative MP for Orpington, welcomed the partnership with IBM.

"We live in an information economy - from the smart devices we use every day to the super-computers that helped find the Higgs Boson, the power of advanced computing means we now have access to vast amounts of data," he said.

"This partnership with IBM, which builds on our £113m investment to expand the Hartree Centre, will help businesses make the best use of big data to develop better products and services that will boost productivity, drive growth and create jobs," he added.

Professor John Womersley, chief executive of STFC, also welcomed the partnership between the government and IBM.

"Data intensive techniques are transforming every discipline of science, and connecting these capabilities to the needs of industry has the potential to revolutionise every business sector," he said.

"The government's five-year investment in the Hartree Centre will deliver a step-change in capability in this area, and will bring in significant knowledge and expertise from IBM Research that will help ensure our science and industry remains at the very forefront of research and development," he added.

Chief executive for IBM in the UK and Ireland David Stokes also backed the partnership with the government.

"We're at the dawn of a new era of cognitive computing, during which advanced data-centric computing models and open innovation approaches will allow technology to greatly augment decision-making capabilities for business and government," he said.

"The expansion of our collaboration with STFC builds upon Hartree's successful engagement with industry and its record in commercialising technological developments," Stokes added.

The government has backed a number of big data projects, including a partnership between the University of Oxford and the US-based Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine. The collaboration project has the goal of using big data and the IoT to "create the NASA of biomedicine".

The Chancellor also used last year's Autumn Statement speech to announce the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science will be headquartered at The British Library in London.