New programme to optimise business-critical software: call for Expressions of Interest

Closing date for submitting an Expression of Interest: 29 September 2017.

EPCC, in partnership with Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Intel, is pleased to announce the launch of the funded CodeOpt Scotland programme, and invites Expressions of Interest for participation from companies across Scotland.

Improving competitive advantage

CodeOpt Scotland's objective is to help companies radically improve the performance of their key software assets and help Intel develop new products optimised for today’s real-world business workloads.

We are seeking to identify software codes that, if optimised, could have a significant impact on a company's business. Impact could be in terms of improved efficiency, or reductions in cost or time to market. In short, improved competitive advantage.

How CodeOpt Scotland works

EPCC’s software experts will collaborate with each chosen company to optimise the selected code, engaging with the team at Intel’s new office within the University of Edinburgh. We expect each optimisation project to last around nine months. 

Intel will exploit the project results to inform next-generation processor development. This will lead to an added advantage for each participating company, as its key code will be compatible with forthcoming Intel products.

We expect to initially run three projects. EPCC's effort will be funded and we will expect the successfull company to contribute its own time and effort in support of the project. It should be noted that the total amount of funding will form part of the company's de minimis allowance.

"Companies have much to gain from optimising their software, but may not have the necessary expertise on hand. CodeOpt aims to put world-class talent to work on these challenges, with the aim of bringing long-lasting benefits for commerce." George Graham, Commercial Manager, EPCC

Selection criteria

To be selected a company should:

• Have a strong Scottish interest. This can mean registered in Scotland or have a significant presence in Scotland.
• Be a global player, with a recognised world-wide brand.
• Be able to identify a key software asset that is business critical, and which could generate significant business impact if optimised. Companies utilising critical third-party software are also eligible.The software should be representative of a set of software codes used worldwide.
• Employ Intel processors in the execution platform.

In addition, the codes should demonstrate significant research potential to Intel. Codes of particular interest are those undertaking or supporting large-scale data analytics and machine learning activities.

Applying

The closing date for submitting an Expression of Interest is 29 September 2017, following which a short evaluation process will be undertaken.

Candidates will be informed of the outcome by 13 October 2017.

To apply, please complete the Expression of Interest form.

Further information 

To find out more, contact our Commercial Manager Thomas Blyth:

t.blyth@epcc.ed.ac.uk

+44 (0) 131 651 3460

+44 (0) 777 370 8191