Firms and research organisations in this country are being encouraged to apply for a possible role to work alongside leading counterparts from across Europe in the creation of antenna facilities

The UK’s new deal with the European Union provides for an artificial intelligence collaboration that will link UK innovators to the continent’s top supercomputers.

Under the new plans, the UK would work with the EU-based “AI factories” to tackle pressing challenges including climate change and disease. Access to such compute power – the high-performance processing capability needed to handle vast data and complex models – is considered “the engine of progress in AI”, the government said.

The government is calling on public research organisations to apply to host an AI Factory Antenna – a facility that, if approved, would act as a gateway to the European sites.

Chosen organisations will be endorsed by the government for ongoing submission to EuroHPC’s – an EU-led initiative that pools supercomputing resources from 35 countries to develop European computing infrastructure and research capabilities.

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If successful, firms will receive up to €5m in funding and partner with a European AI factory to link British researchers to the continent’s supercomputers.  

This is intended to support UK scientists, startups and public institutions to build larger, more complex AI models, shortening development cycles, accelerating innovation, and creating high-skilled jobs across the country. 

AI and digital government minister Feryal Clark said: “Supercomputers are the turbochargers of discovery. By strengthening our partnership with Europe, we’re giving British innovators the compute power to solve climate and health challenges, grow the economy, and deliver our Plan for Change.  This is about more than faster processing – it’s about putting the UK at the forefront of global AI. With access to some of Europe’s most advanced systems, our researchers and startups will be equipped to lead on cutting-edge breakthroughs and strengthen Britain’s role as a trusted partner in international AI development.”

The announcement comes alongside an UK-EU trade deal, that ministers say will help to “grow the economy, back British jobs and put more money in people’s pockets”.