Hartree Centre Cardiff Hub reaches new milestone of 70 companies assisted: A feat of collaborative innovation

For 70 SMEs, Hartree Centre Cardiff Hub (HCCH) has been at the forefront of collaborative innovation.

Since its formation in 2023, HCCH has assisted 70 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with developing their futures in digital innovation. Funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), our team of data scientists, led by directors from Cardiff University’s School of Computer Science and Informatics, have supported SMEs through cutting-edge approaches to digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

We're now assisting our 70th company, an achievement made possible by SPARK and the sbarc|spark collaborative ecosystem.

Institutes innovate better together.

HCCH is a collaboration between the SPARK-based Digital Transformation Innovation Institute (DTII) and Security Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute (SCIII). Our sectors align well with DTII’s themes, encompassing MedTech and FinTech, among others. SCIII provided the core of our data science team, bringing practical experience to the Hub’s collaborations in the Security sector, while DTII provided Project Management via the DTII Manager.

We are always keen to collaborate with other SPARK centres and institutes. Close links with the Centre for Creative Economy and Media Cymru sparked engagement with SMEs in the Creative sector, such as Accordion, Fivefold Studios and Rusty Design. We also look forward to collaborating with SPARK’s new member, the Centre for Social Care and Artificial intelligence Learning (SCALE).

Collaboration sparks innovation.

The wider Cardiff Innovations ecosystem has enhanced collaboration between academia, industry, and government. The sparc|spark ecosystem enabled some of our earliest assists, including Empirisys, Menna.AI, and Simply Do. The ability to work in a shared environment multiplies the benefits of collaboration.

Collaboration with Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) and their network-of-networks has allowed us to reach many more innovative companies.

Working in partnership for societal good.

Our ethos in HCCH is to target our support towards responsible, inclusive, and ethical applications of AI. 10% of our SMEs assisted to date are with social enterprises and charities. This includes implementing AI to improve stakeholder collaboration and providing customised well-being support.

If you’re in sbarc|spark, reach out to us at hartree@cardiff.ac.uk because we would be keen to explore ways we can collaborate in future!