The University of York has said that it will relocate much of its advanced calculations to EcoDataCenter in Sweden, as part of the university’s sustainability efforts.

According to a statement from EcoDataCenter, the university made the decision based on having access to sustainable infrastructure for the most energy-consuming part of IT.

Dr Emma Barnes, Head of Research IT at the University of York, said: “Sustainable research IT is a key principle of the University of York. In addition to optimising the performance of both hardware and software, we need to look at the environmental impact of our work. We have to ask ourselves how we can contribute to positive change by making our supercomputing part of the ‘Green HPC’ movement.”

By placing its data in EcoDataCenter, the University of York is hoping to reduce carbon emissions from the data by about 98%, compared to handling the same data in the UK.

The University of York will also work with EcoDataCenter to raise knowledge about sustainability in the area of High-Performance Computing.

Richard Fuller, Assistant Director at the University of York. “Given the university’s strong commitment to net zero and the fact that our high-performance computing facility will be used for climate research, we were happy to find a partner with a clear focus on environmental sustainability and the capability and maturity to deliver.”

“When the University of York visited our facility in Falun to learn more about how we construct data centres and how we view the role of data centres in society and the circular economy, we found a common agenda in accelerating the green transition in digitalisation. The collaboration has already started, and we are seeing even more universities interested in what we can offer,” added Dan Andersson, CEO at EcoDataCenter.