EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
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| EuroHPC Joint Undertaking | |
|---|---|
| Name | EuroHPC Joint Undertaking |
| Type | Joint undertaking |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Headquarters | Luxembourg |
| Area served | European Union |
EuroHPC Joint Undertaking The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is a multinational initiative created to develop and deploy high-performance computing infrastructure and services across Europe. It coordinates investments, procurement, and research to deliver exascale and petascale supercomputing capabilities, working closely with national authorities, industry partners, research centers, and international initiatives. The initiative aligns with strategic objectives set by the European Commission, collaborates with European Investment Bank, and engages stakeholders including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
Overview
EuroHPC brings together public entities and private partners to acquire, deploy, and operate supercomputers while fostering an ecosystem of HPC4EU providers, national research centers like Jülich Research Centre, and technology vendors such as Intel Corporation, NVIDIA, AMD, Arm Holdings, and Atos. The undertaking supports applications in climate modeling used by ECMWF, materials science linked to CERN, drug discovery associated with European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and artificial intelligence projects involving DeepMind and OpenAI. It coordinates with policy frameworks including the Digital Single Market and programmes such as Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, Connecting Europe Facility, and initiatives tied to European Green Deal targets.
History and Establishment
The Joint Undertaking was established by legal decision following political discussions in the European Parliament and among member states, building on earlier cooperation between institutions like PRACE and projects funded under Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development. Early milestones involved procurement rounds announced after consultations with national research infrastructures including CNRS, CSIC, and CINECA. Key events included memoranda and declarations negotiated during summits attended by representatives from Council of the European Union, European Council, and ministers from countries including Belgium, Netherlands, and Sweden.
Governance and Membership
Governance is structured with a Governing Board that includes representatives from the European Commission, contributing states, and private members including global technology companies and research organizations like Fraunhofer Society and TÜV Rheinland. Membership comprises participating states such as Poland, Greece, and Finland, associated states like Switzerland and partner entities from Norway engaged through agreements. Operational oversight interfaces with national agencies such as ANR (France), DFG (Germany), and procurement bodies similar to Italy's Consip.
Funding and Budget
Funding combines contributions from the European Union budget, national budgets of participating states, and investments from private partners and industry consortia including EuroHPC JU members. Financial instruments include grants under Horizon Europe and public procurement frameworks aligned with rules from the Court of Auditors and financial oversight from the European Investment Bank. Budget allocations have supported procurements, research calls, and center operations involving entities such as Barcelona Supercomputing Center and GCS (Gauss Centre for Supercomputing).
Supercomputing Infrastructure and Projects
EuroHPC has overseen procurements and installations of pre-exascale and petascale systems hosted at centers like CINECA, BSC, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, CSC — IT Center for Science, and CINECA MARCONI. Projects include procurements of architectures from vendors like HPE, Lenovo, Dell Technologies, and accelerators from NVIDIA and Xilinx. Infrastructure supports workflows for organizations such as European Space Agency and large-scale consortia like ELIXIR for bioinformatics, providing capacity for simulations used by IPCC authors and engineering design work for companies like Airbus and BMW.
Research, Innovation, and Applications
The undertaking funds R&I actions connecting academic institutions such as ETH Zurich, University of Cambridge, KU Leuven, and Technical University of Munich with industry partners including Siemens and Philips. Calls target exascale software stacks, performance portability involving projects like OpenMP and MPI, and domain-specific applications in computational chemistry used by Max Planck Society groups and genomics pipelines supported by European Genome-phenome Archive. Training and skills initiatives collaborate with networks such as EOSC and accreditation bodies exemplified by EIT Digital.
Challenges and Future Plans
Challenges include supply-chain resilience tied to suppliers like TSMC and geopolitical constraints involving relations with United States and China, energy consumption concerns relevant to grids managed by operators like ENTSO-E, and workforce capacity requiring talent pipelines from universities and vocational programs allied with Erasmus+. Future plans emphasize expansion toward exascale targets, stronger links with climate and energy projects under European Green Deal, interoperability with European Open Science Cloud, and enhanced partnerships with industrial players such as Schneider Electric and ABB to improve sustainability and uptake.