Translational Computing:
2008 ‘Refresh’

The strategy of "Translational Computing" was originally proposed in response to a 2006 Government consultation looking for novel ways to exploit the power of information and communications technology (ICT) in knowledge-based industry development. The response to the consultation described a central role for co-ordinated ‘purpose-focused’ innovation captured by a translational platform ‘pipeline’ production mechanism for continuous development of information services (applications) driven from cutting-edge trans-disciplinary university research. Although detailed examples given here focus on health technologies and medical sector developments, translational computing holds generic potential for developing a research-led 21^st Century ‘information society’.

The 2006 vision emphasised a co-ordinated responsive role of the higher education sector if the potential of Translational Computing is to be realised at scale.  The vision emphasised the application of advanced, integrated, scaleable ICT to develop co-ordinated solutions to complex societal problems. Simultaneously these create a path to sustainability through integrated product and service export opportunities.

The 2006 Translational Computing ‘Proof Points’ statement explained the intention to periodically ‘refresh’ the strategy and report-back on how project activity had progressed. The sidebar links therefore represent this ‘refresh’ including external developments that have emerged since the original proposal in 2006.

What is Translational Computing?   

Translational Computing captures advanced domain knowledge into focused ICT service applications (green) that run on common, nationally-scalable ICT platforms (blue). The applications’ information flow can ‘join-up’ through standardised messaging systems.

Purpose-driven co-ordination of cutting-edge university research across many domains (multidisciplinary fields of expertise) feed into a process of information service design and delivery. This ‘domain-driven’ mechanism is central to the Translational Computing model, which needs to tackle problems of significant complexity.

Large-scale deployment platforms based on advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approaches and Grid Computing technologies offer geographically-distributed working with large shared data collections. Individual-level ICT (device-based) applications can access vast computational power by invoking a wide range of specialist services.