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Now fully operational, Isambard-AI based at the University of Bristol will give UK researchers access to world-class computing power, which is the lifeblood of artificial intelligence (AI).
This will provide the processing power needed to train AI models and process complex calculations at lightning speed.
Speeding up scientific advances
Helen Godwin, the new Mayor of the West of England, said:
The country’s fastest supercomputer is right at home at Bristol and Bath Science Park.
Isambard-AI, hosted by the University of Bristol, will help power innovation and research that will further put our part of the world on the map.
Its rapid analysis will speed up scientific advances, changing life in ways that we can scarcely imagine.
This supercomputer has remarkably been built in less than two years, with businesses and researchers in the West and beyond now able to apply to use it to power our future.
More projects
But this is just the latest in a series of UK Research and Innovation investments that are helping to improve lives and livelihoods in Bristol.
Other projects are creating jobs and training opportunities, supporting business and helping to ensure healthier and more prosperous place to live.
Using engineered blood cells for long-lasting medicine
Scarlet Therapeutics (Scarlet Tx) is developing new ways to help patients with rare blood types and metabolic disease by using lab-grown red blood cells.
Founded by Professors Jan Frayne and Ashley Toye at the University of Bristol, the team initially set out to develop cell lines to produce red blood cells for use in humans, to address ongoing rare blood shortages.
They quickly realised the wider potential of using engineered blood cells as a long-lasting medicine.
In future this engineered lab-grown blood also has potential to be used for cancer treatments and autoimmune disease.
Scarlet Tx was incorporated in 2022 and has since attracted private sector seed funding and secured several Innovate UK grants.
It currently employs seven people and is located in Science Creates, in Old Market, Bristol.
Training dogs to detect Parkinson’s disease
University of Bristol-led researchers, working with Medical Detection Dogs and The University of Manchester, have shown that two trained dogs can accurately detect Parkinson’s disease from skin oil samples.
They can achieve up to 80% sensitivity and 98% specificity in double-blind tests.
The study, part-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, used cotton swabs to gather sebum from participants, enabling the dogs to identify the disease’s unique scent signature.
This non-invasive, cost-effective method could lead to earlier diagnosis and improved treatment.
The findings also support the development of electronic ‘nose’ devices that mimic canine olfaction for clinical use.
Safer breast cancer screening
Micrima is helping to do breast cancer screening more safely and for a wider range of women, helping to catch the disease earlier when its more treatable.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the UK, and around 56,000 people are diagnosed every year.
Early diagnosis dramatically improves survival rates, yet many tumours are not discovered early enough, particularly in younger women.
University of Bristol researchers are changing that by developing the world’s first radar breast imaging system.
It captures, in just eight seconds, high-resolution 3D images using harmless radio waves and allows women of all ages to be screened for breast cancer in GP surgeries, or high street locations.
Supporting industry and academic projects
With £30 million of Strength in Places funding, MyWorld has:
- supported a range of industry and academic research and development projects
- built a skills and training programme
- invested in regional facilities
As of the end of June 2025 the work of MyWorld has attracted £5 million of further funding from the collaborating partners.
It has also attracted over £38 million of additional funding to the region from a range of private, public and non-profit organisations.
Empathetic help for patients
Anagram is an award-winning creative studio specialising in thought-provoking interactive storytelling and immersive experience design.
Their Inside Mental Health training programme is a unique experience that that helps healthcare professionals and medical students better understand patients with mental health issues, improving both knowledge and treatment.
They’re now working with NHS trusts St Bartholomew’s Hospital and St George’s University Hospitals to deliver specialist VR support, biometrics and empathy training.
Combining technology, creative approaches and a person-focused approach is leading towards better and more empathic help for patients, regionally and nationally.
Production skills bootcamps
The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority is funding production skills bootcamps to equip learners in the region.
To date, 96 people have been equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to give them the best opportunity to work in the region’s creative sector, and to help shape it.
The bootcamps were developed and delivered by the MyWorld skills and training teams, working in partnership with global experts in creative technologies.
They give people the skills to thrive in the fast-moving world of virtual production and help boost their employment prospects.
Post bootcamp employment has been excellent, with almost 40% of those who have completed the bootcamps since June 2025 gaining new roles within the creative industries, and further bootcamps will be offered.
Interactive virtual gigs
Condense is a Bristol company at the cutting-edge of entertainment, bringing live performances into virtual venues for fans around the world to enjoy.
Using their volumetric capture rig, artists are turned into digital versions of themselves.
The digital artists perform in virtual venues, where fans can explore and enjoy, with their own digital equivalents allowing them to view and interact with the performers.
Condense worked with world-leading researchers in the University of Bristol to develop their technology and produce the next generation of live-streamed and interactable virtual environments.
Working with the BBC Radio 1 New Music Show, they’ve created an interactive virtual gig of Sam Tompkins.
Now Condense is developing its technology further to enable fans to join an experience they can’t get anywhere else.
Making AI safer and more human-centric
How Not to Get Hit by A Self Driving Car is an experience that challenges people to avoid being detected as humans by an AI-powered image recognition system.
It’s designed to make AI better, safer and more human-centric by exploring how the non-human eyes of modern vehicle systems ‘see’ the world.
The cities we live in are starting to see us back as surveillance cameras become smarter and self-driving cars become more prevalent.
It’s been exhibited at:
- the Science Gallery Lates
- the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco
- Day of the Devs in Los Angeles
- the Ars Electronica festival in Austria
- an extended tour in Tokyo
Projects of this kind give the public insight into AI, allowing them to be better equipped to contribute to policy, regulatory and development requirements.
Digital instruments
Pyka’s The Expression Orchestra comprises a collection of alternative, easy to use digital instruments.
They are designed to empower and broaden peoples’ access to musical performance primarily in educational settings, with a particular focus on special needs and neurodiverse students.
It did lots of excellent co-design work in care homes and with young people.
The prototype was successfully completed, they’ve had at least one additional commission to build it out and they were successful in winning a Media Cymru Scale Up award to get the product closer to market.
Top image: Bumper from Medical Detection Dogs in the lab. Credit: The University of Manchester
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