School of Geographical & Earth Sciences

ExaGEO is co-led by researchers from Lancaster University ’s @Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Sciences, EPCC , the The University of Edinburgh ’s supercomputing centre, and partners from industry and government.

Over the next five years, they will equip more than 65 new PhD students with skills to develop and apply software for environmental applications which will run on next-generation exascale computing systems.

Exascale computers are advanced systems capable of making a billion billion calculations per second. Their ultrafast performance enables advanced modelling of the Earth’s complex natural systems and unlocks new insights into the workings of the natural environment such as climate change, and the impact of human efforts to improve sustainability.

ExaGEO’s training programme brings together more than 200 experts in geographical, Earth and environmental sciences, computing science, environmental statistics, and engineering.

The ExaGEO leadership team will work to help students build their expertise in four key technical areas: accelerating environmental models through GPU computing, analysing large-scale Earth observation datasets, combining models with data to understand environmental change, and applying uncertainty analysis to environmental predictions.

Students will receive comprehensive training in sustainability studies, environmental, and Earth sciences, climate science, and data science, helping them to develop advanced computational skills paired with a deep understanding of environmental processes.

At the end of their studies, ExaGEO graduates will be able to use cutting-edge computing to tackle complex environmental challenges informed by their understanding of their underlying physical, chemical, biological, and social dimensions.

Professor Todd Ehlers , the head of the University of Glasgow’s School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, is ExaGEO’s principal investigator.

He said: “Our current generation of supercomputers has helped us understand how complex processes on the Earth, like climate change, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and human impacts on the environment, interact with each other through time. Without computer models like these, we would be navigating into uncharted waters in the future.

“The leap in computing power provided by exascale processing holds tremendous potential for addressing some of the most significant environmental and sustainability challenges humanity is currently facing. This project provides a springboard for training future scientists to address these challenges while maintaining UK competitiveness in this rapidly advancing field of research.

“I’m excited about the future impact the students trained in this project will have on understanding how Earth’s climate, terrestrial surface, and biosphere have interacted in the past, as well as what our future Earth may look like.”

 “This project builds upon years of planning at Glasgow to build research expertise in high-performance computing.  The University is now making world-class contributions to understanding how different natural systems and humans interact and what our planet’s future may look like.”

 At the University of Glasgow, researchers from the James Watt School of Engineering and School of Mathematics & Statistics will play leading roles in the consortium and the training programme, along with colleagues from the Glasgow Computational Engineering Centre, the Centre for Data Science and AI, and the Centre for Sustainable Solutions.

 Science and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, said: “Backing the next generation of great scientific minds to fulfil their potential is crucial to unlocking the discoveries which improve our lives and which keep our economy growing over the long term through highly skilled jobs.

 “This £500m investment will back our vitally important higher education sector while supporting more bright students to pursue their talents and in turn deliver the life-saving drugs and clean energy alternatives of the future, that benefit all of our lives.”

 UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said: "UKRI’s investments in Doctoral Training are pivotal for the UK’s research and innovation endeavour. The awards provide funding for Universities across the UK to nurture a cadre of creative, talented people to develop their skills and knowledge, to build partnerships and networks, and to peruse the discoveries that will transform tomorrow, with diverse benefits for society and economic growth.”