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Summaries of EU Legislation

  • Archived: true

    • European high-performance computing joint undertaking

     

    SUMMARY OF:

    Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 establishing the European high-performance computing joint undertaking

    WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

    The regulation establishes the European high-performance computing joint undertaking (EuroHPC JU) under Article 187 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

    KEY POINTS

    Mission

    The mission of the EuroHPC JU is to set up and maintain an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure and a highly competitive and innovative high-performance computing ecosystem in the EU.

    Objectives and activities

    The EuroHPC JU aims to:

    • provide the best available competitive high-performance computing and data infrastructure to the research and scientific community, to businesses including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to the public sector from the EU or from countries associated with Horizon 2020, and support the development of its technologies and applications across a wide range of fields;
    • provide a context for the acquisition of an integrated, demand-oriented and user-driven world-class petascale* and pre-exascale* supercomputing and data infrastructure in the EU;
    • provide EU-level coordination and adequate financial resources to support the development and acquisition of such infrastructure, which will be accessible to users from the public and private sector primarily for research and innovation purposes;
    • for the next-generation supercomputing era, support an ambitious research and innovation agenda to develop and maintain a world-class high-performance computing ecosystem, exascale* and beyond in the EU, covering all scientific and industrial value-chain segments, including low-power processor and middleware technologies, algorithms and code design, applications and systems, services and engineering, interconnections, and know-how and skills;
    • promote the uptake and systematic use of research and innovation results generated in the EU by users from science, industry including SMEs, and the public sector.

    Benefits

    The EuroHPC JU will:

    • contribute to the industrial ambition of value creation in Europe;
    • develop, deploy, extend and maintain an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure in the EU;
    • develop and support a highly competitive and innovative high-performance computing ecosystem.

    It will also support a research and innovation programme to develop the technologies and machines (hardware) as well as the applications (software) that would run on these supercomputers.

    Its target is to equip the EU with an infrastructure of pre-exascale supercomputers by 2020, and to develop the necessary technologies and applications for reaching exascale capabilities.

    Members

    In addition to the EU (represented by the European Commission), the following members take part.

    • Member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
    • Private partners: the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing (ETP4HPC) and the Big Data Value Association (BDVA), as well as other stakeholders (users, supercomputing centres and research organisations).

    Other EU countries or countries associated with Horizon 2020 may become members of the EuroHPC JU, provided that they contribute to its financing and to achieving its objectives.

    A legal entity established in an EU country or a country associated with Horizon 2020 that directly or indirectly supports research and innovation may apply to become a member of the EuroHPC JU, provided that it contributes to its financing and to achieving its objectives.

    Governance

    The governance structure consists of:

    • a governing board, composed of representatives of the EU and participating countries, responsible for strategic policymaking and funding decisions related to the activities of the EuroHPC JU;
    • an industrial and scientific advisory board, with representatives from academia and industry as users and technology suppliers, to provide independent advice to the governing board on the strategic research and innovation agenda and on acquiring and operating the supercomputers owned by the EuroHPC JU.

    Budget

    The EuroHPC JU provides its support in the form of procurement or research and innovation grants to participants following competitive tendering. It is jointly funded by its members with a budget of around €1 billion. The EU’s financial contribution will be up to €486 million — stemming from Horizon 2020, but also from the Connecting Europe Facility — to be matched by a similar amount from the participating countries. The EuroHPC JU’s private members will make or arrange for their constituent and affiliated entities to make contributions of at least €422 million to the EuroHPC JU.

    Timeline

    Located in Luxembourg, the EuroHPC JU was officially established on 28 October 2018 and will remain operational until the end of 2026.

    FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

    It has applied since 28 October 2018.

    BACKGROUND

    For further information see:

    KEY TERMS

    Petascale: systems capable of one quadrillion or 1015 calculations per second.
    Pre-exascale: systems capable of a hundred million billion or 1017 calculations per second.
    Exascale: systems capable of a billion billion or 1018 calculations per second.

    MAIN DOCUMENT

    Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 of 28 September 2018 establishing the European high-performance computing joint undertaking (OJ L 252, 8.10.2018, pp. 1-34)

    RELATED DOCUMENTS

    Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing Horizon 2020 — the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) and repealing Decision No 1982/2006/EC (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, pp. 104-173)

    Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 have been incorporated in the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

    Council Decision 2013/743/EU of 3 December 2013 establishing the specific programme implementing Horizon 2020 — the framework programme for research and innovation (2014-2020) and repealing Decisions 2006/971/EC, 2006/972/EC, 2006/973/EC, 2006/974/EC and 2006/975/EC (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, pp. 965-1041)

    See consolidated version.

    Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union — Part Three — Union policies and internal actions — Title XIX — Research and technological development and space — Article 187 (ex Article 171 TEC) (OJ C 202, 7.6.2016, p. 131)

    last update 13.03.2019

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