The European commission has awarded a grant of 1.7 million euros to fund the data centre industry's first major government-funded research and development programme.
The project, called PEDCA, the Pan-European DCA project, will be led by the Data Centre Alliance (DCA) and the University of East London (UEL) supported by a European consortium of academics, regional governments and industry.
The programme came about as a result of industry body DCA identifying with its members that the data centre sector lacked the benefits enjoyed by most major industries of government-funded research.
DCA executive director Simon Campbell-Whyte said: 'It seems incredible that a sector as important to the European economy as data centres – which every other sector now relies upon for its operations – has never had any independent government-funded research into best practice, sustainability, energy reduction, or training needs.'
The grant funding for the Pan-European DCA project has been negotiated over 18 months by DCA in conjunction with UEL and will fund the project for the next 18 months.
The stated purpose of the Pan-European DCA project is to provide a pan-European ‘academy’ to devise and then implement a joint action plan for the data centre industry for the benefit of the industry in all EU member states.
