The EuroHPC JU celebrates one year of autonomy

Today, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking celebrates one year of autonomy. On 23rd September 2020, the JU officially gained its autonomy from the European Commission, allowing it to run under its own steam and implement its own budget. 

It has been an exciting first year for the JU. Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic the EuroHPC JU has achieved much in a very short time. This included: 

• The procurement of seven supercomputers located across Europe,  two of which have already been inaugurated: Vega in Slovenia and MeluXina in Luxembourg. 
• The first allocation of computing time on EuroHPC machines to European scientific, industrial and public sector users. 
• The first wave of innovative projects that will run on EuroHPC supercomputers, including a battery project that could cut carbon emissions and a project to better understand heart disease using HPC simulation techniques. 
• The launch of call for the second phase of the development of the first European microprocessor for HPC. 
• The launch of call defining the first European Master of Science (MSc) programme for HPC. 

And this is just the beginning! This year was also marked by the entry into force of a new European Regulation, affording EUR 7 billion of EU and national funding for the JU to invest in the next frontier of high-performance and quantum computing over the next decade.   

In the future, the JU will deliver:  

• The inauguration of five further supercomputers within the next year: two pre-exascale machines, Leonardo in Italy and LUMI in Finland; three petascale machines, Discoverer in Bulgaria, Deucalion in Portugal, and Karolina in the Czech Republic. 
• The acquisition of the first European exascale supercomputers, quantum computers, and quantum accelerators. 
• The development of a pan-European training and education programme for HPC, taking into account the diversity of the European HPC ecosystem. 
• A further strengthening of Europe’s leading position in HPC applications, through supporting innovation via co-design. 
• An ambitious research and innovation programme towards more European technological autonomy in the spirit of a public-private partnership, which will connect academic research with industrial innovation, addressing in particular SMEs. 

Anders Dam Jensen, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) Executive Director, said: 

“Today we are seeing the first fruits of EuroHPC JU’s work and of Europe’s investments in our technological future.  

"I would like to thank my team and members of the Joint Undertaking, whose tireless work and dedication has allowed us to reach this milestone. I now look forward to implementing the new tasks provided by the Regulation and to further grow Europe’s HPC ecosystem.”