CASTIEL´s mission is to contribute to the success of the activities of the National Competence Centres (NCCs) as realized in the Research and Innovation Action (RIA) EuroCC. EuroCC targets the aims of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) and covers the setup of a network of 33 NCCs by tackling both the maintenance and strengthening of excellence, while identifying and closing gaps due to the diverse levels of maturity between the different nations. Thus, a core consortium in CASTIEL sets the framework of activities that will support the evolution of each single NCC and enable them step by step to get closer together in terms of capabilities and expertise. The greatest challenge hereby is the integration of the single nations into the overall strategy at European level while preserving their autonomy and without interfering with their national strategy. By this, the challenge of maximising existing European HPC knowledge and expertise across Europe is addressed. CASTIEL plays the role of a single and central reference point at European level to coordinate and support the National Competence Centres.
High Performance Computing (HPC) is heavily used in sectors such as automotive, health, climate, engineering, chemistry and biology but also increasingly in tackling societal challenges, such as climate change, migration policies or energy and food supply. The use of HPC helps us to understand natural behaviours or leads to a more efficient use of resources. In addition, by combining HPC with High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are able to overcome barriers to testing in real-world environments and achieve a much better convergence of assumptions that avoid high costs and risks while constantly reducing time to solution. HPC centres worldwide are collaborating with their user communities in different disciplines and application-areas, and offer well-defined centre-specific mechanisms to support their user needs. The EuroHPC JU is strongly focused on building a European HPC ecosystem comprising exascale supercomputer systems, advanced applications, services and tools, skills and know-how.
In particular, the skills sector is of paramount importance. In this sector there is a variety of maturity levels throughout Europe. Whilst some countries have been investing over a long period a significant amount of money in making their HPC widely usable by industry and academia, some others were simply not able to do so – either due to their economic situation or a late understanding of the significant innovations and benefits, HPC, HPDA, and AI can bring for their citizens, researchers and their industries. Therefore, in CASTIEL the different level of maturity between the different participating states in EuroCC are taken into account, so that skills gaps will be closed while evolving existing mature concepts. CASTIEL's main objectives are therefore the Identification of the available competences in each single nation, support of training potentials of the NCCs, as well as industrial outreach and Business Development. Additionally, NCCs are supported in awareness creation and the establishment of a EuroHPC NCC brand. Hence, CASTIEL acts as a single reference point for the NCCs and provides quick access to knowledge, tools, and expertise.