Harnessing the future of science & new technologies
Evaluation of the Exascale Computing ALgorithms & Infrastructures Benefiting UK Research (ExCALIBUR) programme
WECD was commissioned by the UK Met Office and UKRI/EPSRC to assess the achievements, progress and benefits of the programme, starting with a baseline report and assessment of the programme’s evaluability in the light of complex concepts, processes and delivery involving multiple partners and work packages, and security and confidentiality surrounding research activities and outputs. WECD also produced a detailed evaluation framework and implementation plan including a programme wide Theory of Change (ToC) and ToCs for selected projects funded by the programme (Weather and Climate Change, Agent-based Modelling for Policy Evaluation in Real-time; Quantum Exascale Computing; Blueprinting AI for Science; Turbulence; and Fusion).
The work during the 36 months evaluation drew on desk-based review of programme information and data, industry and sector research to inform development of impact pathways for sectors at exascale, review of international datasets to benchmark UK capabilities, and surveys, interviews and focus groups with policy makers, sponsors, principal investigators (PIs), project managers, Knowledge Transfer (KT) coordinators, scientists, researchers, and software developers and engineers. Deliverables included monitoring & evaluation framework, evaluation reports (baselining, interim and final) and a comprehensive dataset of all 110 projects funded.
