Applications now open for the CIUK25 Cluster Challenge!
11 August 2025
From three teams in the first competition to sixteen teams last year, the Challenge is proving to be so popular among University students that a qualifying round has been introduced.
Team applications for this year's CIUK Cluster Challenge are open now and will close at 10am on Friday 3 October 2025.
The Computing Insight UK 2025 Cluster Challenge has partnered with three universities - Edinburgh, UCL and Durham – to introduce a qualifying round in the form of a series of online challenges. EPCC will run the Edinburgh Challenge, providing participants with access to ARCHER2, the UK’s National Supercomputing Service.
The top eight teams who complete the online challenges will then qualify to attend CIUK2025 in Manchester in December, with all travel and accommodation costs covered by CIUK.
At CIUK2025, the qualified teams will then take on a series of in-person challenges, working with our partner companies Alces Flight and OCF to decide the overall CIUK2025 Cluster Challenge Champions. The winning team will be announced on Friday 5 December. Our champion team will then go forward to represent CIUK in the ISC'26 Virtual Student Cluster Challenge in June 2026.
Further information
The CIUK25 Cluster Challenge is limited to undergraduate and postgraduate students of taught degree courses. There is also a limit of two teams per institution. For full details and to apply, see the CIUK25 Cluster Challenge webpage.
To get a feel for the Cluster Challenge, watch this video of the 2024 event: Computing Insight UK 2024 Cluster Challenge.
