The United Kingdom Joins EuroHPC Joint Undertaking

The United Kingdom’s application to join the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is another step towards the pooling of the resources to strengthen Europe's supercomputing capabilities, advance science and boost the innovation potential of enterprises in Europe.

Researchers and scientists who reside in the United Kingdom will now be able to apply for Horizon Europe-funded EuroHPC JU Research & Innovation calls, in partnership with other European research institutions,  that deal with HPC technologies, applications and software.

The United Kingdom has been able to benefit from the EuroHPC JU supercomputing ecosystem since 2018 as UK users have been eligible, under Horizon 2020, to access EuroHPC supercomputers to power their research. Indeed, in conformity with the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, UK beneficiaries continue to benefit from actions funded by Horizon 2020 programme which includes access to the first generation of EuroHPC supercomputers.

Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of the EuroHPC JU, stated:  

"We warmly welcome the United Kingdom as an official member of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. This adhesion is the continuation of our cooperation.

The UK’s longstanding expertise in supercomputing will contribute to Europe’s objective of becoming a global leader in HPC and Quantum Computing. British scientists will once again be able to work with their European counterparts to support the  development of exascale computing in Europe.”

Emran Mian, DSIT Director General for Digital Technologies and Telecoms said:

“Access to top of the range supercomputers is critical to some of the most important science happening today, from drug discovery to AI. 

Joining EuroHPC is an enormous opportunity for the UK’s best and brightest scientists and researchers to access Horizon funding, and work hand-in-hand with European colleagues. My message is simple: now is the time to apply!” 

More details

• UK joins European supercomputing scheme as world-class British researchers now able to bid for funding, press release of the UK Government.

Background  

Since 1 January 2024 and following the UK’s association to Horizon Europe, researchers and organisations in the UK are able to participate in the Horizon Europe programme on equal terms with researchers and organisation from EU Member States. This association will strengthen the EU-UK relationship in research and innovation, bringing together their research communities to tackle common global challenges in climate, energy, mobility, digital, industry and space, health, and more.

The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity, created in 2018 and reviewed in 2021 by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173, with the mission to: 

• develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the EU a world-leading federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing, quantum computing, service and data infrastructure ecosystem; 
• support the development and uptake of demand-oriented and user-driven innovative and competitive supercomputing system based on a supply chain that will ensure components, technologies and knowledge limiting the risk of disruptions and the development of a wide range of applications optimised for these systems; 

• widen the use of that supercomputing infrastructure to a large number of public and private users and support the development of key HPC skills for European science and industry. 

In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe:  LUMI in Finland, LEONARDO in Italy,  MareNostrum5 in Spain, Vega in Slovenia, MeluXina in Luxembourg, Discoverer in Bulgaria, Karolina in the Czech Republic, Deucalion in Portugal and more recently, JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer, in Germany.

The deployment of an additional supercomputer is underway in Greece: Daedalus, with plans for more, including a second EuroHPC exascale supercomputer, to be hosted by the Jules Verne consortium in France and several mid-range supercomputers across Europe. 

In addition, six EuroHPC quantum computers are under deployment in Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. These revolutionary quantum computers will allow European users to explore a variety of quantum technologies coupled to leading supercomputers.