The New EuroHPC JU Infrastructure Advisory Group is Officially Established

During their meeting on Thursday 2^nd July 2024 in Luxembourg, the recently appointed new INFRAG members elected Stephane Requena as their chair for the next two years. Stephane is Director for Innovation and Technology at GENCI (Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif).

The INFRAG members also elected Walter Lioen as their vice-chair. Walter is Domain Manager Research Services at SURF.

The new INFRAG will continue to provide independent advice to the Governing Board of the EuroHPC JU. The group consists of twelve members and one observer appointed by the EuroHPC JU Governing Board. They will serve in their roles for the next two years. They represent different parts of the European supercomputing ecosystem and come from eleven different European countries. This will allow them to bring diverse point of views and backgrounds to accomplish the INFRAG tasks.

Now that the group is officially set up, the INFRAG can start performing the following tasks:

• Providing advice to the Governing Board of the EuroHPC JU for the acquisition and operation of the supercomputers, drawing up and regularly updating the draft multiannual strategic agenda in relation to such acquisition but also capability building and widening activities.
• Issuing recommendations on the federation and interconnection of the EuroHPC infrastructure.
• Advising on the capability building, including the national HPC Competence Centres and widening and training activities for end-users, as well as opportunities for promoting the take-up and use of European technology solutions notably by the national HPC Competence Centres.
• Organising public consultations open to all public and private stakeholders having an interest in the field of HPC, including quantum computing, to inform them, and collect feedback.

Background

The governance of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is ensured by three bodies: 

• a Governing Board;
• an Executive Director;
• an Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board.

The Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board consists of the INFRAG and the Research and Innovation Advisory Group (RIAG) and its members represent different parts of the European supercomputing ecosystem. This board provides independent advice to the Governing Board on the strategic research and innovation agenda and on the acquisition and operation of the supercomputers owned by the Joint Undertaking, the capability building and widening activities programme and the federation, connectivity and international cooperation activities programme. 

As the mandate of the previous INFRAG 2022-2024 recently came to an end, new INFRAG members have been appointed to continue the INFRAG’s mission.

Updates on both groups are available in the EuroHPC website:

• RIAG updates
• INFRAG updates