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| PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) | |
|---|---|
| Name | PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) |
| Formation | 2010 |
| Type | Research infrastructure |
| Headquarters | Brussels |
| Region served | Europe |
PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) is a European research infrastructure that provides access to high-performance computing resources and services for scientific and industrial communities. It supports computational science projects across physics, chemistry, climate science, bioinformatics, and engineering by coordinating supercomputing centers, national research institutions, and funding bodies. PRACE operates within a landscape that includes other major initiatives and organizations in high-performance computing and research policy.
PRACE coordinates access to petascale and pre-exascale systems hosted by national centers such as CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, CERN, BSC (Barcelona Supercomputing Center), and ECMWF-affiliated infrastructures, linking users from Max Planck Society, CNRS, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, and École Polytechnique. The infrastructure interfaces with European Commission programs including Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and initiatives led by European Research Council and European Investment Bank stakeholders. PRACE’s remit overlaps with projects supported by agencies such as EPSRC, DFG, and ANR while coordinating technical roadmaps consistent with bodies like OpenMP ARB, IEEE, and EuroHPC strategic planning.
PRACE emerged from preparatory initiatives tied to European research policy debates during the late 2000s, drawing on collaborations among institutions including Jülich Research Centre, SURFsara, INFN, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and CSC – IT Center for Science. Early milestones involved roadmap coordination with European Commission directorates and partnerships with national ministries such as Ministry of Higher Education and Research (France), Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, and Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca. Subsequent phases saw procurement and deployment of large-scale systems at centers like TGCC, HLRS, and CINES, integrating architectures from vendors such as IBM, Cray (HPC), Fujitsu, Intel, and NVIDIA. PRACE’s evolution intersected with major projects and milestones like allocations for simulation campaigns linked to IPCC assessments, large-scale initiatives by European Space Agency, and multidisciplinary collaborations involving Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.
PRACE operates as a partnership of national representatives, computing centers, and industrial partners coordinated through governance bodies analogous to boards and councils found in organizations such as European Research Council and GÉANT. Membership includes entities like CSC – IT Center for Science, BSC, CINECA, SURFsara, IPPAS, and national research councils including FCT (Portugal), Science Foundation Ireland, and SNSF. Strategic oversight aligns with frameworks used by EuroHPC JU and follows procedures consistent with policies from European Commission research directorates. Advisory structures draw on expertise comparable to panels within ERC Scientific Council, High-Level Expert Group on Scientific Data, and program committees seen at ISC High Performance and SC Conference.
PRACE facilitates access to flagship compute tiers hosted at national centers such as CINECA, Jülich Research Centre, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, CSC, and IDRIS. Systems span architectures from consortium procurements involving Cray (HPC), Atos, HPE, and Fujitsu and integrate accelerators from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel Xeon Phi. Storage and data services interact with infrastructures like ELIXIR, Copernicus, and EOSC resources, while networking leverages links through GÉANT and national research and education networks such as SURFnet and RENATER. User support includes services akin to those at PRACE Advanced Training Centres, technical help desks, and application performance engineering comparable to teams at NERSC and Argonne National Laboratory.
Allocation of compute time follows peer-review and merit-based models similar to processes at NSF, NWO, and EPSRC, with calls for proposals evaluated by panels drawing expertise analogous to committees at European Research Council and Scientific Advisory Board structures. Eligibility spans researchers from institutions such as University of Oxford, Karolinska Institute, KU Leuven, and industrial partners including Siemens, Airbus, and BASF for collaborative projects. Access mechanisms include standard project calls, exploratory access routes modeled on programs at DOE laboratories, and industry-oriented access aligned with innovation initiatives supported by European Investment Bank financing frameworks.
PRACE-enabled projects have underpinned research in domains represented by institutions like Max Planck Society, Met Office Hadley Centre, Ecole Normale Supérieure, and University College London across climate modeling, computational fluid dynamics, materials science, genomics, and astrophysics. High-profile scientific outputs link to collaborations with teams involved in IPCC assessments, climate reanalysis projects at ECMWF, exascale preparation efforts coordinated with EuroHPC JU, and large-scale simulations informing work at European Space Agency and CERN. Case studies mirror application advancements seen in Human Genome Project-scale bioinformatics, multiscale materials simulations akin to HPC Materials Genome, and turbulence research comparable to studies from Princeton University and Imperial College London.
PRACE maintains strategic relationships with European and international bodies including EuroHPC JU, European Commission, CERN, ESA, ELIXIR, EOSC, and national centers such as CINECA and FZJ. Collaborative interactions extend to vendor ecosystems involving IBM, HPE, and NVIDIA and to academic networks exemplified by Universiteit van Amsterdam, Technical University of Munich, and Sorbonne University. The partnership model echoes cooperative frameworks seen in initiatives like GÉANT, EUDAT, and transnational programs supported by Horizon Europe and bilateral agreements among research ministries.
Category:European research infrastructure