Call for a study to better understand the needs of European HPC users

With this study, EuroHPC JU seeks to understand what specific technical, legal, financial and commercial considerations shape academic/industrial/commercial end-user requirements and how these requirements influence the business decisions of HPC users (academic, industrial and/or SMEs) to access high-performance computing solutions and services.

This analysis should cover the specific academic/industrial/commercial end-user requirements in different sectors covering healthcare, government and defence, IT and telecom, banking and finance, transport, mobility, energy, logistics, retail and consumer goods, sustainable farming, media and entertainment etc.

The study should also provide a short analysis of the HPC resources and services currently available to end-users in the EU, US, Japan, and if possible China. The study should describe if these resources are accessible for free or for a fee.

Finally, as demand for HPC services increases, the study should set out future trends and assess how in the future, academic, industrial and commercial users sector will seek to access HPC services. Some of the factors that should be analysed in this study are:

• either on-premises or cloud based,
• access mechanisms and programmatic interfaces,
• cost,
• pricing models,
• type of support services provided,
• security considerations,
• using systems that are owned by academic, public or governmental organisations or by procuring their own systems ‘inhouse’,
• other factors.

Depending on the results of this analysis, this study could be undertaken every year to assess and rank what factors ‘attract’ industry and commercial end-users to use HPC services in a particular region of the world.

More details

This ex-ante publicity is the first stage of a negotiated procurement procedure not exceeding EUR 60,000 with a minimum of 3 candidates, through which the EuroHPC JU may award the above mentioned contract. The purpose of this notice is to support the EuroHPC JU in the selection of the list of candidates to be invited to submit an offer for the contract. Please note that offers submitted in the subsequent negotiated procedure with a value above EUR 60,000 will be rejected.

All economic operators interested in providing the services described above should send a declaration of interest before 15 January 2023, 17h00 Luxembourg time, by e-mail to infoeurohpc-ju [dot] europa [dot] eu (info[at]eurohpc-ju[dot]europa[dot]eu) with the subject reference “Study on HPC academic/industrial/commercial end-user requirements in the European Union".

More details are available in the ex-ante publicity.