Conclusion 27

UKRI and the Department told us they plan to bridge the gap until the new national supercomputer is ready in 2027 by using a network of new and existing computers located around the UK, and by taking advantage of its access to European supercomputing infrastructure.56 UKRI noted that the Mary Coombs supercomputer provides more or less the same computing capacity as ARCHER2.57 It claimed that with this network, more compute capacity will be available from November 2026, when ARCHER2 goes offline, than in the current supercomputing service.58 It expects that the new national supercomputer will be in the top 50 worldwide and will give UK researchers access to high-quality supercomputing again.59 Maintenance and decommissioning of research infrastructure