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Primeur weekly 2020-03-16

EuroHPC work programme 2020 calls for consolidation type of projects with a budget of 170 million euro

16 Mar 2020 Almere - The EuroHPC JU will open three calls for proposals this year, starting in April. A modest 85 million euro is still available from the general European Union EuroHPC budget. This should be matched by a similar amount from the EuroHPC participation states. Noteworthy is that UK organisations can still participate, but that at some calls it may be difficult for US, Chinese, or Japanese companies to participate, even if they have a strong research presence in Europe.

The three calls in the H2020 EuroHPC work programme are:

H2020-JTI-EuroHPC-2020-01: Advanced pilots towards the European exascale supercomputers for Research and Innovation Actions (EuroHPC-RIA, call opens 16 April 2020)
H2020-JTI-EuroHPC-2020-02: Framework Partnership Agreement in European low-power microprocessor technologies (Phase 2) for Research and Innovation Actions (EuroHPC-RIA, call opens 21 July 2020)
H2020-JTI-EuroHPC-2020-03: Training and Education on High Performance Computing (EuroHPC-CSA, call opens 21 July 2020)

The pilots towards European exascale supercomputers calls for test systems that include European technology. One should include European Processor Initiative (EPI) processor technology, and another project, technology from different H2020 projects. The work programme does not specify this, but it could for instance be from the Exanode family of projects.

For these projects, companies with head quarters outside Europe, may not be welcome: "The EuroHPC JU may limit the participation of legal entities established in associated countries and legal entities established in the EU but controlled from third countries."

A third system asked for will be a "Pilot on quantum simulator". This not about the development - that is already done in the member states like France where Atos developed its quantum simulator - but about the acquisition and about making it available over the Internet. The quantum simulator should be located in a EuroHPC centre or a Tier-0 supercomputer centre. So most likely it will be an Atos Quantum Simulator at CEA or Jülich unless someone comes up with a really innovative proposal.

The second call "Framework Partnership Agreement in European low-power microprocessor technologies (Phase 2) for Research and Innovation Actions" is for the second phase of EPI. Originally, 40 million euro was expected. Now they get 35 million euro, which seems to be less. But actually, when matched by country funds, it is 70 million euro. Only the existing partnership can submit a proposal, but they are allowed to add new partners if necessary.

The third call "Training and Education on High Performance Computing" shows EuroHPC is not only about systems but also about creating an ecosystem. The call wants to create a master programme for HPC and industrial applications of pan-European reach. And, of course, everyone should be involved: PRACE, the almost existing HPC Competence Centres and Centres of Excellence, and relevant industry players. It somehow would fit the idea that all the HPC knowledge comes from the (big) HPC centres, while actually there is a whole ecosystem of small HPC companies that help SMEs with HPC applications.

Overall the 2020 programme does not show too many surprises, except for perhaps the quantum simulator. However, we have no idea yet what will happen in the 2021-2026 timeframe with EuroHPC, as the budget of the upcoming Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes is still unclear.

For a detailed overview of the work programme and calls see our in depth article:

" Details of the three upcoming 2020 EuroHPC JU Calls for Proposals ".

Ad Emmen