Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUROCC (National Competence Centres in the framework of EuroHPC)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-09-01 bis 2021-08-31
During the first year, each NCC shared their existing competences and participated in multiple workshops to exchange best practices, e.g. on Interaction with Industry or Communication and Dissemination. In addition, NCCs are participating in the Mentoring & Twinning activities organised by the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) CASTIEL to help them close gaps in their HPC/HPDA/AI expertise. Newer technologies, such as Edge or Quantum Computing are also already addressed. Also, a variety of workshops have been organised for the NCCs by CASTIEL in cooperation with HPC providers. An overview of the status at M12 can be found in the public report D1.5 “First year summary of the progress of the National Competence Centres”.
The NCCs are implemented in a way, which maintains existing excellence in HPC, HPDA and AI, whilst also addressing current gaps on a national level to enhance the offered services for academia, industry and public administration across Europe. EuroCC brings together most of the European countries and bases on a commitment by the participating states which shows a clear strategical thinking in each of the nations.
These lead organisations mandated by the countryies' governments are the partners of this project and they are the ones, which bring together experts on a national level to set up the Competence Centre. Within EuroCC each nation is represented as a work package on its own, which follows a global strategy (provided as a template of task) and thus simplifies the set up and ensures focused evolution. One important task is the identification of the national stakeholders in HPC, HPDA and AI and thus to create a competence map, which helps to elaborate on national synergies.
Furthermore, the common structure of the NCCs simplifies the interaction with the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) CASTIEL, which creates e.g. a European Competence Map and paves the way for interaction with industry or training. This leverages collaborations between different nations to efficiently address skill gaps and to close them.
A clear identification of relevant end users and their needs allows for a distinctive strategy for the setup and evolution of the NCCs. The work performed to implement the NCCs takes into account the diverse end users from academia, industry and public administration. A dedicated task allows for facilitating access to scientific/technical expertise/consulting, as well as for access to knowledge on state of the art, but also new technologies. The results are improved excellence in available training courses and assuring awareness raising and promotion of the capabilities to industry and academia.
Innovation comes with the identification of opportunities. Thus, the competence mapping performed by the NCCs leads to identification of further available competences in their nation. By the interaction with regional/national industries and the work out of success stories, the benefit for users of HPC/HPDA/AI advanced services is highlighted and facilitates interaction. In addition, the interaction with other NCCs on the European level enabled by CASTIEL provides insights into best practices, the exchange of knowledge and expertise as well as technology transfer.
Especially the effort put into enhancement of training and business support services by the NCCs enables end users to improve their use of HPC and HPDA. Many industrial end users/clients do not have the capacities e.g. in terms of manpower or the expertise to make optimal use of HPC and HPDA.
Therefore, tailored solutions provide required knowledge and expertise which enhance the use of HPC and HPDA without the need for high investments in specialized personnel. Collabortaion between the NCCs and national SMEs is addressed e.g. by FF4EuroHPC, stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs.
The expertise mapping, the improved training and the knowledge sharing, also with regard to new technologies, and in general a close interaction with potential end users creates and promotes a European environment where European Technology providers and HPC end users share expertise and best practices.