The University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, University of Nottingham and Queen Mary, University of London, have each put in £1.5 million into the MidPlus high performance computing centre, while research funding agency EPSRC has provided £2 million in investment.

MidPlus aims to provide extra computing capacity to sectors such as aerospace, biomedical, advanced materials and automotive. It will also provide consultancy and training services from the universities' HPC experts.

The centre's facilities will be open to businesses along the M1/M6 corridor in the East and West Midlands and London.

Professor Mark Rodger, director of Midplus, said: "The large set-up cost to exploit high-performance computing, both in terms of equipment and expertise, can be a major barrier to SMEs expanding into newer or bigger markets, so MidPlus will make it easier for them to step up into the next league.

"It is vital that the UK maintains its investment in e-infrastructure in order to compete on a global scale."