Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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941. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she will provide a table detailing the State investment and-or funding for high performance computing since 2013; if she has any concerns about declining competitiveness in this area. [26800/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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High Performance Computing (HPC) services include the provision and support of high-end computing resources, data analytics, education and training services to industry and higher education institutions. Globally, supercomputers are playing an ever increasing and critically important role in a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields of relevance to cloud technologies, big data, materials research, healthcare, climate research, weather forecasting, oil and gas exploration amongst others. Ireland is committed to establishing a world-class research environment characterised by world-class research outputs, populated by researchers of excellence working within a world-class research infrastructure. Ensuring access to high performance computing (HPC) for computational scientists is integral to the achievement of this overall vision.

Since 2013 my Department has continued its strong commitment to growing Ireland’s capacity in the area of high performance computing (HPC). Much of my Department’s investment in HPC has been channelled through the Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC) which is hosted by NUI Galway. The investment in this national facility complements local HPC expertise and facilities in Irish universities and research institutes including Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork.

Established in 2005 as the national High-Performance Computing Centre in Ireland, ICHEC operates the national HPC service providing computer resources and software expertise for the research community through collaborative partnerships and programmes of education.

Following a national review in 2012 of HPC facilities and capacity in Ireland and following consideration of the resulting report, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (DJEI) and the Department of Education and Skills (DES) agreed that they would jointly provide core funding to ICHEC to enable it to continue to provide this important high performance computing service nationally.

The joint-funding from both Departments amounted to €1.4m annually over the period 2013 to 2015 - €700,000 coming from each Department. For 2016 both Departments agreed to increase their level of funding to a total allocation of €1.8m.

A summary of the joint DJEI- DES funding made to ICHEC since 2013 is as follows:

This commitment of Exchequer funds to ICHEC and high performance computing has been reinforced by the recent decision by my Department and DES to provide funding of €2m per annum to support the delivery of ICHEC’s business plan in 2017. The funding provision to ICHEC is subject to a range of conditions and targets involving the provision of a detailed annual business plan; and ensuring best practice corporate governance arrangements

In addition to this funding, and under its Research Infrastructure Call, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) provided funding of €3.7m towards the purchase of a new supercomputer for ICHEC. This funding was made to ICHEC in 2013. I understand that ICHEC has submitted an application for additional capital investment in HPC facilities under a recent SFI Research Infrastructure Call and that its application is in the final stages of review.

Since 2013 my Department, through Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland and SFI has also made significant investments in research centres and technology centres in the HPC related areas of Big Data Analytics; Future Networks, Internet of Things (IoT), and Cloud Computing technologies. These investments contribute to the achievement of competitive advantage for industry in Ireland by accessing and leveraging the innovative capacity of the Irish research community.

Small countries such as Ireland cannot afford to compete with larger countries on HPC hardware alone, nor can they justify such investments. ICHEC has chosen to focus on the effective use of HPC methodologies and novel technologies with application to strategic areas such as energy efficient programming for IoT, remote observation for precision agriculture and planning, high-resolution modelling for renewable energy, and of course big data.

My Department is presently evaluating continued membership of the European PRACE HPC programme, which would enable Irish Researchers to access the biggest HPC systems in Europe on a competitive basis and access supercomputing and data analysis resources to help drive discoveries and new developments in all areas of science from fundamental research through to applied sciences including mathematics and computer sciences.