EPCC

What EPCC does

EPCC (the Edinburgh Parallel Computer Centre) is a department of the University of Edinburgh and, as of 2025, the UK's first formally designated National Supercomputing Centre. It operates a portfolio of national high-performance computing platforms: ARCHER2 (the UK's National Supercomputing Service at 28 petaflops); Cirrus (an HPE Cray EX4000 / AMD EPYC 9825 system with 73,728 cores and Slingshot 11 interconnect); DiRAC Tursa (an extreme-scaling GPU system with 291,840 Tensor cores built on Eviden Sequana XH2000 racks); NEXTGenIO (an Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory prototype); an FPGA testbed; and the Somerville astronomy data service. Alongside these it runs the Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF), which combines 20PB Lustre, 12PB Ceph, and 30PB tape storage with GPU-enabled machine-learning platforms including a four-system Cerebras CS-3 Wafer-Scale Cluster, as well as Trusted Research Environments implementing the Five Safes model for sensitive data. The Advanced Computing Facility data centre in Edinburgh houses the bulk of this hardware under purpose-built HPE ARCS cooling, and construction began in June 2026 to host the UK's next £750m national supercomputer.

EPCC serves four primary user groups: UK academic researchers (coordinated through UKRI funding bodies); public-sector and healthcare organisations requiring secure data analysis (Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, NHS Digital, the Met Office, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and the ISARIC4C COVID-19 consortium); commercial users in aerospace, energy, automotive, and life sciences accessing Cirrus on a pay-per-use basis; and the STFC particle-physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and nuclear-physics community via DiRAC. Its 25-year-old MSc in High Performance Computing and the Software Sustainability Institute (founded with Manchester, Oxford, and Southampton, with £17m of cumulative UKRI funding) sustain a national training pipeline.

EPCC generates no commercial revenue; it is funded through research grants and government allocations. Major funding streams include UKRI (over £500m invested in ARCHER2 to date), the £750m commitment for the next national supercomputer (2026), the £19.5m Cirrus expansion grant (2026), the £17m VECTA partnership with Rolls-Royce (2026), the £45.7m ExCALIBUR programme, €10m for Pilot-UKAIFA (EU and UK Government, 2025), and the £600m Edinburgh & South-East Scotland City Region Deal that underwrites EIDF through 2033. Access for academic users is coordinated through UKRI; commercial access to Cirrus is offered on a pay-per-use basis. Independent London Economics analysis found ARCHER2 delivered £4.2bn in UK economic benefit against ~£500m of costs, an £8.30-per-£1 return, which has been central to subsequent funding commitments.

Name

EPCC

Legal name

EPCC (part of University of Edinburgh)

Website

https://epcc.ed.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

EPCC, part of the University of Edinburgh, is the UK's first National Supercomputing Centre, providing high-performance computing, AI and data science infrastructure to academic researchers, public-sector bodies, and commercial clients across aerospace, energy, life sciences, and astronomy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Supercomputing Services

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Facilities Management Services (541513), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Electronic Computers (3571), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation) (HDACAOAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH), Research Computing & High-Performance Computing (HPC) User Support (EDALAMAK)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• Supercomputing services
• HPC infrastructure
• Data analytics platform
• Research computing

Headquarters

HQ city

Edinburgh

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. UK Government Funding: EPCC receives substantial funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the UK government for operating national HPC services including ARCHER2 and the next national supercomputer (£750m investment announced). Funding also includes project-specific grants such as £19.5m for Cirrus capacity expansion.
2. UK and Scottish Government (City Region Deal): EIDF is funded by UK and Scottish Governments under the Data-Driven Innovation initiative of the Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region Deal (£600m total initiative).
3. EU Funding: EPCC leads the €10m EU-UK Pilot-UKAIFA (UK AI Factory Antenna) initiative, funded jointly by EU and UK Government.
4. Industry Partnerships: Commercial access to HPC resources (Cirrus) available on pay-per-use basis for industry. Includes commercial software tools accessed on-demand. Current partnerships include £17m VECTA partnership with Rolls-Royce for sustainable aviation research.
5. SSI Grant Funding: Software Sustainability Institute receives funding from all seven UKRI research councils. Phase 3 awarded £7.5m. Total SSI funding of £17m.
6. Strategic Partnership (ASiMoV): Jointly funded by Rolls-Royce and EPSRC strategic partnership. 5-year project developing simulation capability for complete gas-turbine engine operation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

EPCC operates and manages national-scale High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure on behalf of the UK research community, including the ARCHER2 national supercomputer, the Cirrus HPC system, the DiRAC Tursa GPU system, and the Edinburgh International Data Facility. It provides researchers, industry, and public-sector organisations with computational resources, data analytics, secure Trusted Research Environments, and an MSc programme in High Performance Computing. The centre also delivers specialist services including applications support, training, software sustainability, and access to FPGA and AI testbeds.

Product overview

EPCC is the UK's first National Supercomputing Centre, delivering a comprehensive portfolio of high-performance computing and data science services. The core offering includes national HPC systems (ARCHER2 at 28 petaflops, and the upcoming £750m next national supercomputer), specialized HPC platforms (Cirrus for industry, DiRAC Tursa for GPU-based extreme scaling, NEXTGenIO with persistent memory, and FPGA testbed for reconfigurable computing), and data infrastructure (Edinburgh International Data Facility with 20PB storage and GPU/AI platforms, Trusted Research Environments for secure sensitive data analysis, and Somerville for astronomy). Supporting infrastructure includes the Advanced Computing Facility data centre, SAFE accounting/monitoring framework, and outreach platform Discover and Learn. Strategic initiatives include the ASiMoV gas-turbine simulation partnership with Rolls-Royce, Software Sustainability Institute for research software best practices, ExCALIBUR exascale software programme, and the €10m Pilot-UKAIFA AI adoption initiative.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF): A set of compute, data and customer services optimised for data analytics and science, supporting projects across the Data Driven Innovation initiative with cloud, HPC, and Safe Haven services.
• Discover and Learn
• ARCHER2 Outreach
• SAFE (Service Administration by EPCC)
• Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)
• TeamEPCC

Products and services

• ARCHER2
• Cirrus HPC System
• DiRAC: Tursa
• Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF)
• Trusted Research Environments
• Somerville
• SAFE (Service Administration by EPCC)
• FPGA Testbed
• NEXTGenIO
• Advanced Computing Facility (ACF)
• Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)
• MSc in High Performance Computing

Quantifiable outcome

• £4.2 billion in UK economic benefit delivered by ARCHER2 over five years
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability11 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

18 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Rolls-RoycecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2018ASiMoV Strategic Prosperity Partnership jointly led by EPCC and Rolls-Royce. Ground-breaking 5-year project to develop world's first high-fidelity simulation of a complete gas-turbine engine during operation. Also includes £17m VECTA partnership for sustainable aviation research.
• University of BristolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in ASiMoV Strategic Prosperity Partnership alongside Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick.
• University of CambridgecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in ASiMoV Strategic Prosperity Partnership alongside Bristol, Oxford and Warwick.
• University of OxfordcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in ASiMoV Strategic Prosperity Partnership alongside Bristol, Cambridge and Warwick.
• University of WarwickcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner university in ASiMoV Strategic Prosperity Partnership alongside Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford.
• CFMS (Centre for Modelling & Simulation)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSmall-to-medium enterprise partner in ASiMoV project contributing to simulation and modelling capabilities.
• ZenotechminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSmall-to-medium enterprise partner in ASiMoV project contributing computational modelling expertise.
• HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)coreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary hardware partner for EIDF providing HPE Proliant servers, HPE Apollo GPU servers, HPE SuperDome Flex systems, HPE E-1000 Lustre storage, and ARCS cooling technology.
• University of ManchestercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounding partner of Software Sustainability Institute along with Edinburgh, Oxford and Southampton. SSI draws on team of experts from all four universities.
• University of Oxford (Oxford e-Research Centre)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounding partner of Software Sustainability Institute along with Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton.
• University of Southampton (Electronics and Computer Science)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounding partner of Software Sustainability Institute along with Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford.
• Imperial College LondonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration to produce new high-resolution dataset for studying near-wall turbulence using direct numerical simulation on ARCHER2.
• Queen's University BelfastminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration with Imperial College London and EPCC to produce new high-resolution dataset for studying near-wall turbulence.
• Heriot-Watt UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on GeoChemFoam project developing world's most advanced open source pore-scale numerical simulator. EPCC contributed parallelisation of OpenFOAM mesh generation for ARCHER2.
• UC ChileminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUC Chile delegation visit to EPCC as part of strategic partnership exploration in AI regulation, supercomputing, and doctoral training. Aligns with UC Chile's 2026-2030 Strategic Plan.
• Vera C. Rubin ObservatorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEPCC hosts UK Independent Data Access Centre for Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) with 200+ PB of survey data products.
• Gaia Satellite Project (ESA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSomerville used as testbed by Gaia satellite mission completing census of more than one billion stars in the Milky Way.
• ExCALIBUR Programme PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEPCC coordinates knowledge exchange across ExCALIBUR (£45.7m UK programme) with ~50 funded projects exploring exascale software, DSLs, RISC-V, FPGAs, and cross-cutting research.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS): Spain's national supercomputing center operating the MareNostrum supercomputer. Directly comparable as a European national HPC center providing tier-0 compute, research services, and industry partnerships to academic and commercial users.
• CINECA: Italian national HPC consortium operating Leonardo, one of Europe's most powerful supercomputers. Directly comparable as a national HPC center serving academic and industrial research users across continental Europe.
• Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC): Germany's national supercomputing center operating JUWELS and the upcoming JUPITER exascale system. Directly comparable as a European national HPC facility providing tier-0 services to research and industry.
• CSCS (Swiss National Supercomputing Centre): Switzerland's national HPC center operating the Alps supercomputer. Directly comparable as a national supercomputing facility serving academic researchers with industry access programmes.
• GENCI: France's national HPC agency coordinating supercomputing resources including those at CEA-TGCC and IDRIS. Comparable as a national-level HPC infrastructure provider for French academic and industrial research.
• IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center: Czech Republic's national HPC center operating the Karolina and LUMI systems. Comparable as a Central European national HPC facility serving academic research with growing industry partnerships.
• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): US-based academic HPC center operating Frontera and Stampede systems. Comparable as an academic-affiliated national-scale HPC facility providing resources to researchers across multiple scientific domains.
• NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications): US academic HPC center at University of Illinois, operating Delta and providing Blue Waters-class resources. Comparable as a university-affiliated national supercomputing facility with deep software and applications expertise.

Regional players

• Pawsey Supercomputing Centre: Australia's national HPC facility serving astronomy and scientific research. Comparable as a publicly-funded national supercomputing center serving academic and research users, though operating in a different geography (Australia).

Broad incumbents

• Amazon Web Services (AWS HPC): Major hyperscaler providing on-demand HPC and AI compute (EC2 HPC instances, ParallelCluster). Represents the broad commercial alternative to national HPC centers, increasingly competing for commercial HPC workloads that might otherwise flow to EPCC's Cirrus pay-per-use service.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/epcced
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/epcc
• Instagraminstagram.com/epccedinburgh

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about EPCC