Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to support research into advanced computing and artificial intelligence.

Research and development is fundamental to improving future living standards, as well as tackling some of the greatest challenges and opportunities, such as those identified in our Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges, which includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data. Through the Industrial Strategy, we have committed to reaching the target of 2.4% of GDP investment in R&D by 2027 and 3% in the longer term, placing us in the top quartile of OECD countries.

In April 2018, we announced a Sector Deal between government and industry that will put the UK at the forefront of the AI industry. As part of this, UKRI announced £100m investment in February 2019 in PhDs in AI at 16 new Centres for Doctoral Training based at 14 UK universities. UKRI has also announced four regional workshops to seek input to the current UKRI Review of AI.

In advanced computing, my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £79 million funding for the next national supercomputer, ARCHER2, in the recent Spring Statement. The supercomputer will be hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than a traditional desktop computer and will be used to run massive research simulations. This new resource will be housed at the University of Edinburgh's Advanced Computing Facility at Easter Bush, and will be integral in aiding discoveries in many areas of research including Materials Science, Engineering, Physics and Chemistry and Climate science.