Network of HPC Competence Centres for SMEs

Specific challenge: HPC competence centres have been set up in some Member States to facilitate access and take-up by industry and in particular SMEs of HPC services. As yet these centres do not cover the whole of Europe. Supporting one network of HPC competence centres will promote access to computational expertise anywhere in Europe and enable the dissemination of best practice in HPC industrial use particularly for SMEs. This topic contributes to the implementation of the European HPC strategy, in particular to foster the use of HPC by SMEs.

Scope: Proposals should address at least the following activities:

(1) networking of existing HPC competence centres providing HPC services to exchange best practices and pool technical, expertise or business resources;

(2) awareness raising and visibility activities of the benefits of HPC for SMEs in particular for countries that do not currently have such centres;

(3) identification of the pool of SMEs and available expertise in the different business areas at European level, and mechanisms to match SME needs and the available expertise;

(4) training (in synergy with the activities carried out by other organisations providing specific training for SMEs in HPC);

The aim is to support one network which will address coordination, outreach, training and the exchange of best practice and software components between the participating national and regional competence centres, complementing their current activities and services with actions of a clear European added-value that cannot be performed at local level. Direct support to adoption of HPC by individual SMEs is not expected to be carried out by this network.

This action will be complementary to the actions carried out in the Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing Work Programme 2014-2015 in the specific call for manufacturing, (H2020-FoF-2014/2015) ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS) (topic FoF-9-2015).

Expected impact:  

         The network of HPC competence centres will be a reference for best practices for supporting SME competitiveness through access to HPC;

         Increased number of SMEs that are aware of the potential and/or become users of HPC;

         Establishment of a focal point at European level for expertise in HPC use by SMEs;

         Increase in the size of the HPC market (services, ISVs, computers).

Type of action: Coordination and support actions