HammerHAI Partners with University of Edinburgh to Advance AI Capabilities in Industry

Under the AI Antenna agreement, HammerHAI will provide access for the UKAIFA user community to a new, large-scale AI-optimized supercomputer that is scheduled for installation at HLRS in early 2026. HammerHAI will work with UKAIFA to enable secure, federated data sharing and cross-platform compatibility. This collaboration will also enable UKAIFA to integrate with the wider EuroHPC AI Factory network, leveraging HammerHAI’s connections to participate in European AI infrastructure development efforts.

In a press release announcing the UKAIFA, EPCC Director and UKAIFA Lead Coordinator Professor Mark Parsons said “EPCC and HLRS have led the use of national supercomputing services in Europe by industry over the past 30 years. The emergence of AI as a key application of supercomputing, and this funding from EuroHPC and the UK Government, is now enabling our organizations to embark on this new collaboration. We’re honored to be working with HLRS and the University of Stuttgart again.”

Recognizing that large scale adoption of AI will require more than computational hardware, the UKAIFA will also provide companies the knowledge and tools they need to develop and implement innovative AI products and services. The UKAIFA will offer training for AI skills development, expert support and consulting services, and access to relevant datasets and other resources that will enable them to create and roll out artificial intelligence applications more quickly.

The UKAIFA will support a wide range of stakeholders, user communities, and industries that are important within the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region, including the financial technology, health, energy, food and drink, tourism, creative, robotics, and space and satellites sectors. This profile complements that of HammerHAI, which concentrates on delivering advanced AI capabilities for fields including manufacturing, engineering, global challenges, and research.

The UK AI Factory Antenna will build on the expertise gained over more than 20 years of collaboration between EPCC and HLRS. Working together, the two organizations have become leaders in bringing high-performance computing and artificial intelligence to European industry. EPCC  launched the highly successful Fortissimo project series, which since 2012 has worked with more than 3,000 companies to support their use of supercomputing to develop innovative products, improve efficiency, and compete more effectively in the global marketplace. HLRS continues to coordinate the latest iteration of this project, called FFplus.

Dr. Bastian Koller, Managing Director at HLRS and Lead Coordinator of HammerHAI, welcomed the announcement of the UK AI Antenna saying, “Considering the shared commitment and expertise that HLRS and EPCC have in bringing HPC and AI to industry, the UKAIFA is a perfect match for HammerHAI. It will enable us to build on our past successes to focus intently on the most urgent challenges European companies currently face in adopting and scaling up artificial intelligence applications.”

By producing and documenting success stories of effective and innovative applications of artificial intelligence, the UKAIFA will provide inspiring examples and valuable knowledge that will encourage and enable SMEs, startups, and larger enterprises to take advantage of the rapidly emerging opportunities that artificial intelligence offers.

“This partnership reinforces HammerHAI’s commitment to advancing AI innovation across Europe’s industries,” said Dennis Hoppe, head of the HLRS Department of Converged Computing and project manager of HammerHAI. “Together, we will contribute to accelerating AI adoption, providing secure and scalable AI resources for academia and business.”

The UKAIFA is funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the UK Government with a total budget of €10 million over the next 3 years.

— Christopher Williams