CSC part of a project to build pan-European HPC competency network

CSC is part of a new pan-European effort aimed at creating a European network of national high-performance computing (HPC) competence centers. The EuroCC project, funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and 33 participating European states, will build a sustainable and globally competitive European HPC ecosystem. It will serve research and science in academia while also supporting industries in European member states with a particular focus on encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to turn to and exploit the advantages of HPC.

EuroCC is one of the first major projects to be supported by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, which was established in 2018. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking marked the start of a new, Europe-wide approach to HPC investment by facilitating closer coordination of all participating states in the realms of infrastructure, technology development, and the development of advanced software. EuroCC will take this effort one step further by facilitating the development of a coordinated, integrated, high level of expertise across Europe in high-performance computing and related disciplines for science and industry, such as high-performance data analytics, classical simulation, and artificial intelligence.

To achieve this goal, each of the 33 member states will designate a national HPC competence center. These centers will be charged with auditing and expanding HPC competencies at the national level and identifying available expertise and knowledge gaps across the country. Over time, the competence centers will become national resources for identifying and coordinating technical knowledge, training resources, industrial outreach, and HPC services and tools for all computing centers in their home countries.

Approximately half of the funding of €60 million to support the creation of the competence centers is being provided by the EU, while the other half will come from the individual countries. The project officially started on September 1, 2020 and will last for two years.

One of the EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputers, LUMI, will be placed in CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland.

Related news: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/eurocc-and-castiel-two-new-projects-boost-european-hpc-knowledge-and-opportunities

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