User Forum Coordination Group to strengthen ties between EuroHPC Users is officially established

Today, on 23 October 2024, the User Forum Coordination Group (UFCG) met in person for the first time in Amsterdam, during the EuroHPC User Day 2024. 

This follows the inaugural online meeting of UFCG’s that took place on 19 September 2024, where Chris Richardson from the University of Cambridge was elected as Chair of the Group, and Maria Girone from CERN was elected as Vice-Chair. 

Composed of members who expressed their interest following last year’s EuroHPC User Day, the newly created UFCG will organise, coordinate and moderate the work of the User Forum. The UFCG  will serve as a key platform to bring together HPC users from across the European Union. The User Forum will provide a space for users to share strategies, exchange best practices, collaborate on topics critical to HPC and collect feedback from the active users. 

The upcoming User Forum will contribute to enriching the work of EuroHPC JU, providing useful feedback on EuroHPC  activities. 

At the User Day, the User Forum Coordination Group presented its activities which aim at strengthening connections between users and fostering knowledge sharing across the HPC landscape. Topics to be discussed will cover user behaviour on EuroHPC systems, future HPC needs, user environment on HPC systems, new architectures and the identification of emerging HPC applications and sectors.

"The establishment of the User Forum Coordination Group is an important moment for the EuroHPC community. This initiative will strengthen ties between HPC users across Europe and ensure their valuable input shapes the future of European supercomputing" 

said Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of EuroHPC JU.

Chris Richardson, Chair of the UFCG, stated: 

“I am pleased to be involved in developing the EuroHPC User Forum, giving users the opportunity to be heard, and to help each other”. 

Maria Girone, Vice-Chair, added: 

"The User Forum Coordination Group presents an incredible opportunity to bridge the user community's needs with the vision of the EuroHPC JU. Together, we are shaping the future of high-performance computing in Europe, fostering innovation and empowering more efficient use of HPC resources to drive progress and possibilities across the continent".

Initially, the UFCG will work on the following tasks:

• Connect users across the EuroHPC community, enabling the exchange of knowledge and experiences and organise the 1^st User Forum.
• Contribute to the organisation of the EuroHPC events, including the EuroHPC User Day and the EuroHPC Summit

The UFCG will meet regularly online, with an in-person meeting once per year. 

More details 

The User Forum Coordination Group (UFCG) is dedicated to organise, coordinate and moderate the User Forum and ensure that it will involve users from public and private HPC communities in Europe.  The UFCG and its User Forum are not part of the formal governance structure of the EuroHPC JU and will report directly to the EuroHPC JU Executive Director. 

The UFCG is composed by:

• Chris Richardson, University of Cambridge, UK
• Maria Girone, CERN, Switzerland
• Andrius Popovas, University of Oslo, Norway
• Xavier Besseron, University of Luxembourg
• Ivan Carnimeo, CNR-IOM, Italy
• Thomas Geenen, ECMWF, Destination Earth, Germany
• Lara Peeters, SC - HPC in Flanders, Belgium
• Sinéad Ryan, Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics​, TCD Dublin, Ireland
• Zoe Cournia, Biomedical Research Foundation of Athens, Greece
• Jean-Yves Verhaeghe, EUMaster4HPC, France
• Sergio Posada Perez, University of Girona, Spain
• Nuno Guerreiro, Unbabel, Portugal
• Peter Taborsky, Cognitive Systems, DTU, Denmark
• Matthias Meinke, Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Aerodynamics RWTH, Germany. 

Additionally, the UFCG may collaborate closely with the two advisory bodies of the EuroHPC JU, the Infrastructure Advisory Group (INFRAG) and the Research and Innovation Advisory Group (RIAG), to ensure coordinated efforts on strategic priorities. When performing their tasks INFRAG and RIAG may seek the opinion of the User Forum Coordination Group.

Background

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a legal and funding entity created in 2018 to enable the European Union and EuroHPC JU participating countries to coordinate their efforts and pool their resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing. 

In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.  

No matter where in Europe they are located, European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from these EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.