EU HPC Ecosystem
National Competence Centers and Digital Innovation Hubs
FF4EuroHPC represents a key tool for the National Competence Centers (NCCs) and Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) to foster their work with SMEs, in order to facilitate the widening of industrial HPC user communities and service providers in Europe. NCCs and DIHs closely collaborate with SMEs to identify new business challenges and partners and support the implementation of the appropriate actions to foster the use of HPC by the SMEs. NCCs and DIHs were the main contact point providing all the information regarding FF4EuroHPC Open Calls. To inspire the community, NCCs and DIHs communicate the success stories produced by FF4EuroHPC experiment partners and share know-how acquired by the SMEs by using HPC technology. NCCs can also help their SMEs to identify HPC experts and providers useful for the realisation and success of their application experiments in the context of FF4EuroHPC project.
NATIONAL COMPETENCE CENTERS
Starting in September 2020, a network of National Competence Centers (NCCs) in 33 participating European states is being established within the EuroCC project with the support of EuroHPC JU, and coordinated by HLRS (High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart). The 33 participating European states are building a sustainable and globally competitive European HPC ecosystem, supported by NCCs. NCCs provide expertise and access to the state-of-the-art HPC infrastructure to researchers in academia and will support industries with a particular focus on encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs). NCCs connect local HPC providers and domain experts in respective countries and create a national knowledge hub, tailored to the stakeholders’ specific needs.
Learn more about the NCCs and find the nearest one here.
DIGITAL INNOVATION HUBS
The digital transformation and usage of HPC technologies bring opportunities for big and small companies. The European Commission supported to build the European network of Digital Innovation Hubs which will help companies, that operate in different industrial sectors, to adopt digital technologies and to remain competitive internationally. DIHs are one-stop shops, that provide access to technical expertise, innovation services, provide information on investments, trainings and skills that help organisations to reap the benefits of digital transformation.
Not-for-profit associations and European initiatives
PRACE
The mission of PRACE is to enable high-impact scientific discovery and engineering research and development across all disciplines to enhance European competitiveness for the benefit of society. PRACE seeks to realise this mission by offering world class computing and data management resources and services through a peer review process.
ETP4HPC
ETP4HPC – the European Technology Platform (ETP) for High-Performance Computing (HPC) - is a private, industry-led and non-profit association. Their main mission is to promote European HPC research and innovation in order to maximise the economic and societal benefit of HPC for European science, industry and citizens.
I4MS (ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs), an initiative funded by the European Commission since 2013 that aims to improve the competitiveness of SMEs through the digitalisation of their processes, products and services. I4MS will offer 35 million euros via open calls to manufacturing SMEs to get technological and financial support to conduct experiments testing digital innovations in their business operations. The main goal of I4MS is to improve the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs by facilitating access to digital technologies and training opportunities to adapt their workforce to current challenges.
European HPC projects and CoEs
Learn more about the HPC related projects in the Handbook of European HPC projects prepared by ETP4HPC.
The European Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for High Performance Computing (HPC) applications were selected following the calls under the European Research Infrastructures. They promote the use of upcoming exascale and extreme performance computing capabilities and scale up existing parallel codes towards exascale scaling performance. There are 18 CoEs operational at the moment, covering the areas of engineering, environmental science, renewable energy, materials modelling and design, molecular and atomic modelling, Big Data and Global System science, bio-molecular research, and tools to optimize HPC applications performance. Learn more here.