The UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project is a national flagship research programme developing the next generation of personalised cancer vaccines through artificial intelligence, autonomous laboratories and sovereign UK supercomputing, bringing together 2,500 supporters and collaborators across the nation.
The award recognises the exceptional infrastructure and expertise provided by the Isambard-AI team, whose facility has become one of the UK’s most important national scientific assets.
Isambard-AI is the UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer, providing more AI compute than all other UK supercomputers combined. It is ranked the thirteenth fastest supercomputer in the world and seventh fastest in Europe (TOP500, 2026), while also being recognised as the fourth greenest supercomputer globally (Green500, 2026). The system operates entirely using UK renewable electricity and employs advanced Direct Liquid Cooling technology, consuming less water annually than approximately 21 average UK homes.
The UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project has developed the UK’s first billion-parameter AI foundation model designed specifically for personalised cancer vaccine discovery. The programme combines sovereign AI supercomputing, transformer-based AI models, autonomous laboratories and robotics to design safer, more precise and more effective personalised cancer vaccines. Through a continuously improving AI-driven scientific learning loop, the programme aims to accelerate the discovery, testing and future manufacture of intelligent therapies.
The programme has become embedded within the UK’s national research strategy. It is referenced in the UK 10-Year National Cancer Plan (2026) as one of ten projects demonstrating UK research excellence, highlighted within the Government’s AI for Science Strategy, selected by ARIA as one of the UK’s flagship AI Scientist programmes, and supported by organisations including ARIA, the Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Access to national AI infrastructure is provided through competitive GPU-hour allocations awarded by UK Research and Innovation on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and was made possible by Isambard-AI.
Dr Lennard Lee, Programme Lead for the UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project, said:
“The Isambard-AI team are truly world class. Sovereign AI supercomputers are changing the face of cancer vaccine research. Through the extraordinary people behind this national facility, we are helping the NHS and changing the future of cancer care. Patients up and down the country can be hopeful that AI in the UK will accelerate cancer research”
He added:
“Scientific breakthroughs increasingly depend upon access to world-leading AI infrastructure. The expertise of the Isambard-AI team enables researchers across the United Kingdom to tackle challenges that simply were not possible only a few years ago. Their work is helping position the UK as a global leader in AI-enabled scientific discovery.”
Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of BriCS and Co-founder of Isambard-AI, said:
"The team at Bristol Centre for Supercomputing are touched to receive this recognition. We work hard to provide world-class, sustainable AI infrastructure that powers people to achieve breakthroughs never before thought possible. Seeing Isambard-AI support The UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project in their heroic efforts to develop personalised cancer vaccines demonstrates this beautifully.”
As the UK continues to invest in sovereign AI capability, partnerships between advanced computing facilities and leading biomedical researchers are creating new opportunities to accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen the NHS research ecosystem and improve outcomes for people living with cancer.