Call for Contributions: UK Data Centres Digital Economy Report 2024
The report will seek to update and have a similar structure as our 2020 report: techUK – Data Centre Sector Overview 2020. Therefore, it will have a strong narrative around the crucial part data centres plays in underpinning the UK's economy. It will be used to support policy asks from the sector to make sure the UK remains an attractive destination to invest in, build and operate data centres.
Data Centres currently face significant challenges in building new or expanding their presence in the UK – the two most significant barriers are planning permission (see here) and delays in securing connections to the electrical grid (see here).
The report will include up-to-date figures that show the demonstrable case to UK Government, Devolved Government/Combined Authorities, and local authorities to support, engage with and better understand role data centres have in the UK economy.
The report will also include 3 case studies on data centre clusters, including Greater Manchester, West London and one other that will be identified as part of this work.
We call on techUK members within the data centres ecosystem to share with us company case studies or data/data sets and existing research on:
- Data on data centres' economic contributions to the local or national economy of the UK and /or Devolved
- Growth drivers and mitigators (AI, planning and other challenges)
- Energy consumption
- ESG (including renewables, heat district networks, biodiversity, water conservation and cooling tech etc)
- Skills
- Innovations in the sector and supply chain (liquid cooling, quantum etc)
To provide these, please get in touch with Luisa Cardani at [email protected] or Lucas Banach at [email protected]
N.B: This page will be updated regularly with more information on the award of the tender and timelines and themes.
Indicative Timeline:
- Applications for tender deadline 12 July
- Tender award response – w/c 15 July 2024
- Members to start input into the research and draft - July 2024
- Media plan - August 2024
- Deadline for case studies - Late August 2024
- Draft finalisation - September 2024
- Data Centres Council and Sponsors sign-off - Late September / early October 2024
- Publish – October 2024
For more information contact:
Luisa C. Cardani
Luisa C. Cardani
Luisa C. Cardani is the Head of the Data Centres Programme at techUK, aiming to provide a collective voice for UK operators and working with government to improve business environment for the data centres sector.
Prior to joining techUK, Luisa worked in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as the Head of International Data Protection, where she led on the development of elements of the UK's data protection and privacy policy. In her role, she was also the UK official representative for the EOCD Privacy Guidelines Informal Advisory Group.
She has held a number of position in government, including leading on cross-cutting data provisions in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and in high priority cross-departmental projects when working in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
She holds an M.Sc. from University College London's Department of Political Sciences.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 07587 210 799
- Website:
- www.techUK.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisacardani
Lucas Banach
Lucas Banach
Lucas Banach is Programme Assistant at techUK, he works on a range of programmes including Data Centres; Climate, Environment & Sustainability; Market Access and Smart Infrastructure and Systems.
Before that Lucas who joined in 2008, held various roles in our organisation, which included his role as Office Executive, Groups and Concept Viability Administrator, and most recently he worked as Programme Executive for Public Sector. He has a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski Cracow University.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2006
- Twitter:
- @techUK
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-banach-50139650