In a major step towards making Europe a top supercomputing region globally, the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) has selected eight sites for supercomputing centres located in eight different member states to host the new high-performance computing machines. Three of the hosting sites will be located in emerging Europe: Sofia (Bulgaria), Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Maribor (Slovenia). The other sites are Kajaani (Finland), Bologna (Italy), Bissen (Luxembourg), Minho (Portugal) and Barcelona (Spain).
The supercomputers will support the development of major applications in domains such as personalised medicine, drug and material design, bio-engineering, weather forecasting, and climate change. In total, 19 of the 28 EU member states participating in the Joint Undertaking will be part of the consortia operating the centres. Together with EU funds, it represents a total budget of 840 million euros. The exact funding arrangements for the new supercomputers will be reflected in hosting agreements that will be signed soon.
Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, said: “These sites will give our researchers access to world-class supercomputers, a strategic resource for the future of European industry. They will be able to process their data inside the EU, not outside it. It is a major step forward for Europe to reach the next level of computing capacity; it will help us to advance in future-oriented technologies like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robotics and data analytics.”
Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, Günther Oettinger, added: “This initiative demonstrates how joint investment between the EU and its Member States in support of a common objective can contribute to making Europe a leader in a high-technology sector, bringing significant benefits to all European citizens and businesses. We are now looking ahead to the EU’s next long-term budget and to our Digital Europe Programme, through which we have proposed a significant amount of investment in deploying a world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure.”
[…] According to Emerging Europe, the supercomputers will support the development of major applications in domains such as personalised medicine, drug and material design, bio-engineering, weather forecasting, and climate change. They will provide a framework for Europe to strengthen its position as one of the pioneers of the data-driven economy, says HPC wire. […]