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Guidance

AIRR advanced supercomputers for the UK

Updated 28 September 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-research-resource/airr-advanced-supercomputers-for-the-uk

The AI Research Resource (AIRR) is a suite of advanced computers that provides world-leading, artificial intelligence (AI)-specialised computing capacity to:

  • public researchers
  • academia
  • small and medium size enterprises

The AIRR aims to address the acute under-provision of specialised public compute for AI users in the research and development (R&D) community. This is crucial for the acceleration of AI innovation and the government’s growth agenda. 

It is made up of  AI-optimised, high-performance computing (HPC) platforms that support ambitious research projects, and provide access to advanced hardware, software and expert support.

These projects:

  • represent significant advancements in the UK’s AI infrastructure
  • provide cutting-edge computational resources for researchers and start-ups
  • foster collaboration across various growth sectors such as healthcare and clean energy evidenced  by the use cases for AIRR phase one

Background 

The AIRR programme intends to address the significant shortage of publicly available computing resources in the UK. In January 2025, the government announced expanding AIRR capacity, by at least 20 times by 2030, as part of the AI Opportunities Action Plan.  

The government has committed to spending an extra £1 billion to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20, giving Britain the power to become an AI leader.

AIRR compute clusters

The government is investing significantly in the Isambard-AI and Zenith AIRR clusters and will have invested over around £350million by 2030.

Isambard-AI (University of Bristol)

The Isambard-AI facility is the UK’s most powerful public compute facility. It is made up of 5,448 Nvidia GH200 Grace-Hopper superchips (supplied by HPE) and operated by the University of Bristol at Bristol’s National Composites Centre.

Further information on the system can be found on the Isambard website.

Zenith (University of Cambridge)

Built in partnership with AMD, Dell Technologies and StackHPC, Zenith is the UK’s largest AI-for-science platform. It combines AI and scientific computing to help researchers tackle complex challenges, including cancer research, climate modelling and clean energy. Zenith provides the computing power needed to support the next generation of scientific discovery.

Dawn (University of Cambridge)

Dawn was one of the first systems delivered through the UK’s AIRR, bringing together AI and high-performance computing to support research across health, energy and climate science. The system is powered by 1,024 Intel Data Centre graphics processing unit (GPU) Max 1550 GPUs.

Apply to use AIRR

Two access routes are currently available:

  • rapid access (no closing date)
  • gateway (no closing date)

The innovator access route closed on 16 January 2026.

Additional routes for larger-scale projects will be introduced as the AIRR service evolves.

All projects must:

  • be conducted in the UK
  • aim to deliver benefits within the UK.

Access to the compute capability will be provided in accordance with the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Rapid access

Open to UK-registered micro, small and medium organisations, this route supports early-stage development of AI products prior to market launch.

Eligible activities include:

  • feasibility studies
  • industrial research
  • experimental development

Resources available:

Up to 20,000 GPU hours on AIRR services, to be used within 3 months of project start.

Read further guidance by UKRI on the Rapid Access route.

Gateway

Designed for researchers from academia, industry, or other UK organisations, this route supports:

  • first-time users of AI supercomputing resources
  • testing of (novel) algorithms, code, and workflows
  • benchmarking of algorithms, code, and workflows before applying for larger AIRR opportunities

Eligible activities include:

  • fundamental research (research organisations only)
  • feasibility studies
  • industrial research
  • experimental development

Resources available:

Up to 10,000 GPU hours on AIRR services, to be used within 3 months of project start.

Read further guidance by UKRI on the Gateway route.

Apply via the AIRRPortal

You can use the AIRRPortal to apply to use AIRR.

Apply to use AIRR

Read further guidance by UKRI on how to use the AIRRPortal.

Accessibility and inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone.

Contact details

Contact us at airr@ukri.org to ask for guidance.

Privacy notice

Read the AIRRPortal privacy policy.

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