EuroHPC/PRACE Finland

Access to world-class computing resources

EuroHPC/PRACE Finland virtual research infrastructure (RI) is essentially a reboot of the successful former PRACE Finland RI. It reflects the evolution towards a world-class computing and data management ecosystem in Europe in the era of EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). EuroHPC JU, formed in 2018, pools together EU and national resources to develop a world-class supercomputing ecosystem in Europe by acquiring leadership-class supercomputers, and deploys HPC services for science, industry and SMEs.

Finland has taken a prominent position in EuroHPC JU by hosting one of the three first European leadership supercomputers, LUMI, located in CSC's data center in Kajaani, which features a substantial national monetary investment. When LUMI was inaugurated in 2022, it was one of the most competitive and green supercomputers in the world.

The main allocation mechanism of the EuroHPC JU resources will be coordinated by Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE), where Finland is a founding member. PRACE has offered supercomputing services for over a decade and has given national HPC ecosystems a common European umbrella. PRACE has extensive expertise in HPC Training. CSC is a PRACE Training Center (PTC) since 2012 and is the European leader of PRACE training activity.

The overall objective of EuroHPC/PRACE FI is to proactively support and facilitate access for Finnish researchers to state-of-the art computational and data resources for performing world-class science. EuroHPC/PRACE Finland will promote EuroHPC and PRACE resources and capabilities among the Finnish research communities, and give hands-on support to Finnish resource application to the European systems.

The RI will also run the process of organising the Finnish extreme scale calls on LUMI supercomputer, and enhance the LUMI computing environment with an inclusion of value-adding, user-friendly software service. EuroHPC/PRACE FI will additionally continue to play an active role in PRACE governance on the European level to efficiently influence the strategic development of HPC in the best interests of Finland and the whole of Europe.

This project has received funding from the Research Council of Finland​​​​​​​ and NextGenerationEU.