National one-stop shops for HPC competencies
“By working together on topics of common interest, NCCs are creating a thriving HPC ecosystem, with the two-way exchange between the European and national levels.”
While previous European initiatives have been launched to encourage the adoption of HPC and associated technologies, many prioritise a national focus, resulting in a landscape of varying competence. “To truly develop a globally competitive European HPC skills base – with a clear impact on society, industry and scientific excellence – European countries should be at comparable levels of competence,” says Bastian Koller, project coordinator of the EU-funded EuroCC project. EuroCC has set up 33 National Competence Centres (NCCs), the first initiative within EuroHPC to bring so many countries together. Each NCC is supported by its Member State, including 50 % cost-sharing, and is guided by the objectives of consolidation, integration and exchange. By first identifying their available competencies, individual countries can maximise synergies to build national competence portfolios. To ensure these benefit the whole network, European-level activities are coordinated through sister project CASTIEL. The NCC network also cooperates with external bodies such as Centres of Excellence, the ETP4HPC and PRACE. As some countries have already benefited from significant national HPC investment, one of the biggest challenges for EuroCC has been standardising competence levels across the network. In response, an NCC twinning and mentoring programme, financed by CASTIEL, has been established to share knowledge and skills. But as Koller explains, “the disparities actually help by highlighting specific areas for impactful collaboration and guiding the network’s collective trajectory and vision.” The disparities have also generated a catalogue of various tried-and-tested solutions to problems encountered across the network. EuroCC is currently focused on training delivery, continued interaction with industry, competence mapping and communications. Crucially, it is also exploring new fields, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify future NCC priority topics. “By working together on topics of common interest, NCCs are creating a thriving HPC ecosystem, with the two-way exchange between the European and national levels that raises everyone’s game,” concludes Koller.
Keywords
EuroCC, HPC, High Performance Computing, Supercomputer, technologies, digital sovereignty, quantum computing, innovation, green computing, energy-efficient, skills, SMEs