punch4nfdi

JSC activities out of the project

PUNCH4NFDI brings together the particle, astroparticle, astro-, hadron and nuclear physics communities in Germany. These fields conduct a substantial share of curiosity-driven basic research in physics and generate large, complex datasets at major research facilities. Because this work is organised through international collaborations involving thousands of scientists, effective data management and access require solutions that reach beyond national infrastructures. Building on the consortium’s first funding period, which began in 2021, the funded follow-up project PUNCH-2.0 further develops PUNCH4NFDI into a user-driven service provider within the NFDI and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) landscape. It provides researchers with sustainable, federated infrastructure and services for managing, accessing, processing and sharing research data. A refined Science Data Platform supports open and FAIR data access, while science-driven use cases ensure that the services meet the practical needs of the communities. PUNCH-2.0 also offers training in FAIR and open science practices and contributes to the long-term development and international integration of the wider NFDI architecture.

The project is organised into three scientific task areas. TA1 Technical Foundation develops and operates the core components required for the project’s services, including storage, computing, accounting tools and (meta)data catalogues. TA2 Enabling Science Exploitation connects this technical foundation to the Science Data Platform and develops reusable solutions based on standardised community tools and representative use cases. TA3 Service, Outreach and Stakeholder Management coordinates the services, training and outreach activities, promotes FAIR and open science practices, and maintains links with key stakeholders, including NFDI and EOSC.

Jülich Supercomputing Centre contributes expertise in high-performance computing, data storage, and scientific user support across all three task areas. In TA1, JSC helps develop federated storage services, integrate HPC storage, and provide Jupyter-based access to computing resources for interactive simulations and data analysis. In TA2, JSC leads the “Data-Generating Simulations” use case, developing reusable workflows that connect simulation execution, provenance tracking, and data management with FAIR publication, and contributes to community data management frameworks. In TA3, JSC leads “Services and Results Management,” providing user support and hands-on assistance with service adoption, while collecting community requirements to guide further development.

This is the second project phase of PUNCH4NFDI.

The first project phase of PUNCH4NFDI started in October 2021 and successfully concluded in September 2026.