IBM

The cognitive solutions and cloud platform company, IBM is leveraging its ground-breaking research and technology to help streamline the business process for companies based at Sci-Tech Daresbury and its wider community.

IBM has contributed significant investment into the campus, most notably through establishing an IBM Research presence at Sci-Tech Daresbury in a collaborative research partnership with the Hartree Centre.

Working together, IBM Research and STFC’s goal is to develop new technologies in high-performance analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) that will improve the competitiveness and growth rate of the UK economy.

The 30-strong research team based within the Hartree Centre were the first people employed by IBM Research in the UK, a fact which Martyn Spink, programme director at IBM Research, believes is a big statement from the company.

He said: “Our presence at Sci-Tech Daresbury is a real win-win. IBM’s job is to help organisations achieve their business goals using the right technology, and the fact that Sci-Tech Daresbury is a community of innovation-based organisations means that it’s an environment that offers great collaboration opportunities.

“As a location, we’re placed in striking distance to a lot of our collaborators. We’re almost equidistant between Liverpool and Manchester and have built successful partnerships with their universities. So geographically, it was a very deliberate move to base our operations at Sci-Tech Daresbury.”

The company also demonstrates its ongoing commitment and support to SMEs in technology and innovation through its role as a Gold Partner of Sci-Tech Daresbury.

IBM UK is based at The Innovation Centre and is one of the campus’ long-standing Gold Partners. The initiative provides tenants with access to IBM experts, who can then identify where they can implement technology to develop their own business performance.

Gary Wilson is CTO of IBM UK’s Commercial Business, he said: “At Sci-Tech Daresbury, we see our role also to support businesses that are both based on campus and part of the surrounding Sci-Tech Daresbury community, to extend their reach, scale and opportunity.

“We see ourselves as a key connector on campus, helping our neighbours to establish new contacts with international experts, who will support them to achieve their goals sooner and reach as wide an audience as possible.”