The target for the research at the Turing Institute will be “big data”. This refers to the vast amounts of digital data being created by systems and networks.

The government has identified “big data” as a business opportunity and skills challenge for UK firms.

Last year, the government announced a £189m investment in its ‘big’ data infrastructure.

It is also working with employers, e-skills UK, Nesta, Universities UK and the Open Data Institute to address a skills shortage in data analytics.

What is big data, Mr Osborne?

The storage and processing of the data presents new challenges to companies and research is needed to develop techniques and algorithms to process and store such large quantities of data.

It will use massively parallel software running on networks of servers.

It has been suggested that 2.5 exabytes (2.5×1018) of data was created each day in 2012.

Five years of government support for the centre could total £42m.

The new Turing Institute will be created in a university campus, and universities will be invited to bid for hosting the Institute.