As part of the high performance computing (HPC) initiative, which is a European project of strategic interest, the European Commission today proposed setting up the headquarters of the joint undertaking EuroHPC in the Grand Duchy. As a new legal and financial structure, EuroHPC will acquire, set up, and deploy across Europe an integrated pan-European infrastructure of super-calculators.
The EuroHPC initiative is the real-life follow-up to the declaration signed in Rome in March 2017 by the Grand Duchy, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands as the official starting point of the strategy – initiated by the Grand Duchy – to set up a European HPC network. Belgium, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Greece and Croatia all joined the initiative during 2017.
Once it has been set up in the Grand Duchy in the second half of 2018, the operational EuroHPC structure will also support a research and innovation programme to develop both the technologies and machinery (computer hardware) and the applications (software) to run on super-computers capable of processing several billions of calculations per second. Between now and 2020, about one billion euros of public funds will have been invested in the EuroHPC initiative. The EU’s contribution will be in the order of 486 million euros, matched by a similar amount from the member States and associated countries which, together with the European Commission, are the shareholders in this joint structure.
HPC, used for carrying out digital simulations in the industrial, scientific and medical fields, demands such a large quantity of resources that the calculations cannot be carried out on ordinary computers. The EuroHPC initiative will ultimately provide the calculation capacity needed by businesses, research centres and universities to ensure the competitiveness of the EU in the development of the digital economy in Europe.
Prime Minister and Minister of State Xavier Bettel said, “The Commission’s proposal to host the EuroHPC structure in the Grand Duchy confirms the country’s power of attraction as an innovative place. In keeping with the resources deployed at the national level for the Digital Lëtzebuerg initiative, the Grand Duchy is also ready to play a pioneering, constructive and participatory role in implementing the digital strategy for Europe.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Étienne Schneider said, “The proposal to host the structure that deploys the European infrastructure of world-class super-computers in the Grand Duchy upholds the reputation of our country as a ‘smart nation’, able to cope with a digital society. Through HPC, we will be enabling all the economic stakeholders in the Grand Duchy, and particularly innovative businesses, to access vast calculation power that will allow them to innovate and develop. HPC is also a vital element in the Rifkin Strategy.”
