Durham-based supercomputer helps tackle Covid

We're proud to host a new £3.8m supercomputer that is being used to better understand Covid-19 and how to recover from the pandemic. The computer, called Bede, is also playing a key role in areas like Artificial Intelligence (AI), energy storage and therapeutic drug design. Based in Durham, Bede adds to our growing hub of High Performance Computing (HPC) technology, which includes the COSMA supercomputer used across particle physics, cosmology, astronomy and nuclear physics programmes. We're also investing £1.2m in Hamilton 8, a CPU-based HPC to support research across all four of our Faculties, which will be commissioned later this year. Covid-19 modelling Bede is supporting research and discoveries across the North of England through the universities of the N8 Research Partnership and beyond. It links the highest capability national and international supercomputers with local computers at individual research institutions. Researchers are modelling the spread of Covid-19 around the UK, providing up-to-date information on disease risk and the effect of local lockdowns for the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).