News from PRACE Implementation Projects

From 5 to 7 September 2012, more than 180 participants from the 24 PRACE member countries and the Brussels Office met at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris for a three-day project meeting of PRACE-2IP and PRACE-3IP, the second and third implementation phase projects for the PRACE Research Infrastructure. The European Commission is providing funding worth € 18 million and € 19 million for both two-year projects, respectively. The preceding project, the first implementation phase project PRACE-1IP, just passed its second periodic review very successfully. The reviewers attested excellent progress as the overall result. All three projects support and accelerate the implementation of the pan-European high-end computing research infrastructure created and operated by PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe). JSC is the coordinator of all three PRACE implementation projects.

At the project meeting, the current status and future work of PRACE-2IP, which started in September 2011, was discussed in an all-hands meeting, covering the first one and a half days. This was followed by the kick-off of PRACE-3IP and the welcoming of Denmark and Israel as the latest partner countries in the PRACE projects. PRACE-3IP continues the work of the PRACE-1IP project. It will also undertake a pilot joint pre-commercial procurement (PCP), focusing on whole system design for energy-efficient HPC. PCP is a new instrument for R&D procurements by public procurers in Europe. Thus, the project complements PRACE-2IP, which puts special emphasis on providing access to national HPC resources (Tier-1), building on the former DEISA projects. Application-enabling and scaling support in partnership with scientific communities, support for industrial users and the operation of the recently created PRACE Advanced Training Centres (PATC) are further important activities. Dr. Florian Berberich (JSC) was appointed project manager of PRACE-3IP.
(Contact: Dr. Florian Berberich, f.berberich@fz-juelich.de)

from JSC News No. 207, 28 September 2012

Last Modified: 09.09.2022