UK companies encouraged to "Go for the GRID"

UK companies are this week (5th and 6th September) given encouragement to build long term relations with CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) with a view to winning contracts, especially related to the GRID.

Mr Basil Eastwood, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Switzerland, and Professor Ian Halliday, Chief Executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) will visit a number of companies to discuss the commercial opportunities available to them.
CERN, the home of the World Wide Web, is currently leading the development of the DataGrid Project - the next generation computer infrastructure providing extensive computation and analysis of shared large-scale database across widely distributed scientific communities. , ,CERN expects to spend over £200 million in IT over the next decade. The main driver for this investment is the need to exploit data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), due for completion in 2007. The LHC experiments will generate huge volumes of data to be accessed and analysed cost effectively by collaborations involving physicists spread throughout the world., ,Through PPARC the UK particle physics community have been at the forefront of recent developments in "Grid" computing and e-science. The UK is investing £110 million over three years in a co-ordinated e-Science programme to create the next generation IT infrastructure to support e-Science and business. , ,As part of the UK programme PPARC is investing £17million over the next three years in the development of the LHC computing grid - 30% of this investment is made directly at CERN making the UK the leading collaborator in CERN Grid developments.
Professor Ian Halliday, Chief Executive of PPARC said:,"This is an exciting time for UK companies as there will be many opportunities for them at CERN leading up to the LHC and beyond. Developments being made now with regard to GRID computing represent the start of a new era of IT technology with huge commercial spin-offs beyond the scientific objectives.", ,The companies visited include:- Vega Systems (Welwyn Garden City), Elonex (Wembley), Logica, Cobham, IBM (Winchester), HP Labs (Bristol), Coda SciSys (Chippenham) and Oracle (Reading). , ,These visits come in advance of the Britain @ CERN exhibition which takes place at CERN 12-14 November. The exhibition provides UK companies with a virtual office at CERN for the week, enabling them to establish contact with the relevant procurement staff and demonstrate their products and capabilities., ,Britain @ CERN is organised by BEAMA and supported by PPARC and Trade Partners UK. For further information about Britain @ CERN please contact [e-mail]
,Notes to editors, ,1. The UK subscription to CERN is around £65 million per year which is 18% of the total Member State contributions. The total goods and services spend from CERN in the UK in 2001 was £26 million, which is 10.5% of CERN's overall spend in these two areas., ,2. The UK's National e-Science Centre, was opened by Gordon Brown on Thursday 25 April 2002. The centre, run jointly by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, will provide a focal point for the UK's involvement in e-Science initiatives and integrate closely with the highly advanced computing projects being spearheaded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council [PPARC]. For further details see http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/Press/escience.asp ,Contacts, ,Peter Barratt - Head of Communications,Tel: [phone],Mobile: [phone],Email: [e-mail], ,Dr Neil Geddes - Director of Grid Science for PPARC,Tel: [phone],Email: [e-mail], ,Visit itinerary, ,Thursday 5th September,Visits to Vega Systems (Welwyn Garden City), Elonex (Wembley) and Logica, Cobham, ,Friday 6th September,Visits to IBM (Winchester), HP Labs (Bristol), Science Systems (Chippenham) and Oracle (Reading)
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is the UK's strategic science investment agency. It funds research, education and public understanding in four broad areas of science - particle physics, astronomy, cosmology and space science. , ,PPARC is government funded and provides research grants and studentships to scientists in British universities, gives researchers access to world-class facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN, the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory. , ,It also contributes money for the UK telescopes overseas on La Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility., ,PPARC's Public Understanding of Science and Technology Awards Scheme provides funding to both small local projects and national initiatives aimed at improving public understanding of its areas of science.

Countries

Switzerland, United Kingdom