As two of the most advanced countries in the development and use of AI for science, industry and public services, this partnership will significantly strengthen both countries’ national AI ecosystems and the wider European AI ecosystem.
The Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS) based at the University of Bristol and the Grand équipement national de calcul intensif (GENCI) will work on building and establishing a collaboration on supercomputing for the benefit of their respective communities and the broader European research ecosystem.
This joint initiative will foster bilateral scientific collaborations in the field of AI-specialisation across materials science, life sciences and medical, cybersecurity, AI security and safety, energy, and engineering, and more globally in AI for science.
The collaboration will ensure sharing of best practice on industrial involvement as well as establishing joint training and education tracks, exchange of students and researchers, hackathons, and the organisation of joint scientific seminars.
Both parties will collaborate in assessing new scientific and technical approaches including federated/distributed learning, agentic and frugal (cost efficient) AI, as well as jointly developed gathering and analysing information about advancements and trends in AI hardware and software.
Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, said: “We are delighted to work alongside GENCI to deliver an innovative and productive European supercomputing ecosystem. Our AI supercomputer, Isambard-AI, is the 11th fastest and 4th greenest supercomputer in the world and having delivered on this project successfully and at pace, the BriCS team is perfectly positioned to co-lead this with the GENCI team.”
Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol, said: “The University of Bristol is proud to have forged this pioneering new European partnership that will enable unique collaboration with our French colleagues. We will continue to develop and grow the UK’s AI and supercomputing strategy alongside the Government, accelerating critical research and supporting industry innovations at home and internationally.”
A Letter of intention between BriCS and GENCI (PDF, 309kB) provides further information on the ambitions of the partnership.