The federal and provincial governments this week unveiled major capital toward sustaining the region’s research capacity through some technological upgrading.
The B.C. Knowledge Development Fund is providing more than $30 million to enhance high-performance computing infrastructure at Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria, according to a statement from the Province—two of five national supercomputer sites.
“Our government is investing in B.C. universities to support a range of research bringing about advancements in health care, like new heart monitoring technology and artificial intelligence for individually personalized cancer treatments, as well as research that will accelerate decarbonization pathways and grow B.C.’s hydrogen sector for a cleaner future,” stated Brenda Bailey, B.C. Minister of Jobs, Economic Development, and Innovation.
The bulk of investment is earmarked for the aging infrastructure of SFU’s Cedar system, which provides advanced computing power for research and collaboration across the country.
On top of capital from the BCKDF, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada is contributing nearly $41 million toward SFU’s Cedar supercomputer setup, which is currently responsible for providing more than one-third of research computing in the country.
The combined funding will enable SFU to build a new system.
UVic also received funding from both BCKDF and the Alliance. The capital will help UVic renew its cloud computing infrastructure, the Arbutus system, which changed how scientists in Canada process and share large datasets (Arbutus handles more than three-quarters of all research cloud computing conducted in Canada).
“Data is an essential national asset, foundational to our country’s knowledge creation, economic growth and social impact,” stated George Ross, who serves the Digital Research Alliance of Canada as chief executive officer.
Ross praised the “significant investment in our national compute infrastructure” as a collaborative “commitment to scientific excellence.”
The BCKDF was established in 1998.
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