High-performance computing (HPC) is fundamental in a wide range of actions, from financial fraud detection to smart energy or manufacturing innovation. EU Member States need to increase their HPC competencies. The EU-funded EuroCC project will mobilise the necessary expertise to create a network of National Competence Centres in HPC across 33 EU and associated states. The project will provide an overview of the vast service portfolio tailored to the respective national needs of public administrations, academic communities and industry. EuroCC aims to strengthen the national competencies of HPC as well as high-performance data analytics and national AI capabilities to close existing gaps in the usability of these technologies.

To facilitate access to high-performance computing (HPC) in Europe, so-called National Competence Centres (NCCs) for supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics were established by the EU in the first phase of the EuroCC project from Sep. 2020 until the end of 2022 in 33 participating countries. These centers offer free consulting and information for companies, researchers, and public administrations in their respective countries. In Germany, EuroCC@GCS takes over the role of the NCC. It consists of the GCS centres JSC, LRZ, HLRS, and SICOS BW. The second funding phase of the project started in January 2023 and lasts for the next three years.

The first phase of the project focused on establishing the German NCC as a single point of contact for HPC topics in Germany, creating an overview of HPC-related competencies, and offering trainings for industrial and academic users. The needs of potential users were identified and a service portfolio was defined. This second phase of the project will concentrate on offering these services to the industry, to academia, and to the public sector, and on collaborating with the European Centres of Excellences (CoEs). In EuroCC 2, JSC is leading the tasks “Services to and Interaction with Academia and Public Administrations” and “Collaboration”.