Supercomputing Expertise for SmAll and Medium Enterprise Network

Project Information

SESAME NET

Grant agreement ID: 654416

DOI

10.3030/654416

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 May 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures

Total cost

€ 1 998 363,75

EU contribution

€ 1 998 363,75

Coordinated by

ARCTUR RACUNALNISKI INZENIRING DOO
Slovenia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SESAME NET (Supercomputing Expertise for SmAll and Medium Enterprise Network)

Reporting period: 2016-06-01 to 2017-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overarching objectives to be addressed in the project were every clearly set out in the call for a Network of HPC Competence Centres for SMEs (EINFRA-6-2014):
To promote access to computational expertise anywhere in Europe.
To enable the dissemination of best practice in HPC industrial use particularly for SMEs.

The SESAME Network proposal brought together a mixed consortium of HPC Centres and facilities with experience of working with industrial partners (including large enterprises, SMEs and micro-SMEs), academia and collaborative research projects between industrial and academic partners.

The consortium – the founder members of SESAME Net - includes 13 centres and facilities who have already gained some experience of working with SMEs (e.g. IT4I, CESGA, ARCTUR, YOTTA), national centres (e.g. ICHEC, GRNET, SCAI) who are members of PRACE, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, National Facilities who are not members of PRACE (e.g. UVT, RBI, VU, IICT) but who have significant expertise in HPC within leading-edge academic research projects, regional centres (e.g. VSC Flanders) and private sector operated centres (e.g. ARCTUR, Yotta).

The aim of the project in meeting the overall objectives of the call is to:
create an inclusive network, with other HPC Centres welcome to join;
encourage centres outside the formed consortium to be represented at workshops and to contribute to best practice materials and training provision;
ensure that the network exchanges best practices relating to the promotion of access to computational expertise anywhere in Europe.

Activities are divided in 6 work packages.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

1.2 Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The Supercomputing Expertise for Small & Medium Size Enterprise (SESAME) Network project was funded under EINFRA-6, which set out the scope to:

1) Create a network of existing HPC competence centres providing HPC services to exchange best practices and pool technical, expertise or business resources;
2) Raise awareness and visibility of the benefits of HPC for SMEs in particular for countries that do not currently have such centres;
3) Identify a 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) Develop training (in synergy with the activities carried out by other organisations providing specific training) for SMEs in HPC.

The SESAME Net project started on 1st June 2015 and finished on 31st May 2017. During the project period there were many administrative, managerial and partnership changes. At the very beginning the first Coordinator HPC Wales withdraw from the project and Bangor University took over the Coordination of the project. This caused a late start of the project and lead to poor results in Y1, all deliverables were rejected and additional review was organized in October 2016. The main purpose of the review was to show the reviewers that the project is on the right way and partners can full fill all the requirements of the project. The interim review was passed successfully, all deliverables from Y1 and action plan for Y2 were approved. During that period, the second Coordinator Bangor University, withdraw and new partner and coordinator Arctur took over the coordination of the project.

Many key activities were concentrated from October 2016 till May 2017. In this period, the HPC4SME Self-Assessment Tool was developed and launched, the EU Roadmap for SME to uptake the HPC was published and advertised, partners attended many important events to promote the project and raise the awareness (Digital Day Rome, HPC Forum Stuttgart, HPC Summit Barcelona; Hannover Messe, many other local events), the work within every WP were well organized, all partners strived to accomplish the key performance indicators (KPIs) and to full fill all the tasks within the project period.

All partners agreed to continue with the Network and Community activities even after the end of the project. In this prospective the Memorandum on continued operations of SESAME Network was signed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

1.3 Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

HPC related technologies are recognized as having significant potential to contribute to the Digitising Europe programme , and through SESAME Net, we believe the project can contribute to the overall objectives to:
• facilitate a smooth transition to a smart economy
• prepare the next generation of products and services
• boost innovation capacity across industry
• increase the European GDP by up to €110bn/year

SESAME Net project results are a great start for the continuing the outlined objectives and activities after the official project end. The activities, especially those in Y2 were already planned and set as middle or long-term activities, such us: HPC4SME Assessment Tool, SESAME Net Community, EU Roadmap, SESAME Network etc.
In order with this vision all partners agreed or signed the Memorandum on continued operations of SESAME Network which prolong the Network operations for at least 2 years.

During the final period of the project all partners exchanged their ideas about the vision and future strategy and the main goals which are worth to developed deeply:
The European Union HPC4SME Certification which will be developed for HPC Centres who are SME ready. The HPC Centers need to go through a procedure of evaluation and if successfully passed the HPC Center gets the certificate HPC4SME ready.
Expand the Self-Assessment Tool methodology for HPC Centers, ISV vendors, Region/Countries. To evaluate if an HPC Center, ISV vendor or Region is ready for SMEs.
All these ideas lead for a new project proposal, maybe a SESAME Net 2 project.

Examples of SESAME Net Activities

Network_members_map

SESAME Net Broshure

Examples of SESAME Net Activities

Broshure: EU Roadmap