FF4EUROHPC: HPC INNOVATION FOR EUROPEAN SMES

Project Information

FF4EuroHPC

Grant agreement ID: 951745

DOI

10.3030/951745

Project closed

EC signature date 15 July 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 9 998 475,00

EU contribution

€ 9 998 475,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF STUTTGART
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FF4EuroHPC (FF4EUROHPC: HPC INNOVATION FOR EUROPEAN SMES)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

FF4EuroHPC has the general objective of supporting the EuroHPC initiative to promote the industrial uptake of HPC technology, in particular by SMEs, and thus increase the innovation potential of European industry.

Therefore, the FF4EuroHPC project addresses the need for outreach to, and support of, Europe’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) so that they can profit from the innovation advantages offered by advanced
High Performance Computing (HPC) technologies and services.

FF4EuroHPC takes core team members from the highly successful Fortissimo and Fortissimo-2 projects which executed 92 business experiments. They will use the lessons learned and best practices developed in those
projects to create a portfolio of business-oriented “application experiments” that allow agile SMEs to investigate and solve business challenges and develop innovative business opportunities. The application experiment
framework ensures that they receive the necessary, appropriate support to enter into the HPC ecosystem.

FF4EuroHPC will lower the barriers for the participating SMEs to commence HPC-related innovation in their existing or newly identified markets either by using HPC systems for their business needs or by providing new
HPC-based services. The outcome will be improved design and development processes, better products and services, and improved competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Fundamentally, FF4EuroHPC is focussed on the creation of economic growth and jobs for the European Union.

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

Since the beginning of the project, FF4EuroHPC has successfully produced seven deliverables and achieved four out of seven milestones. Including these achievements are:

-the project and Open Call 1 experiments successfully kick-off
-the set up of the necessary management and administrative structures
-the continuous communication and dissemination of project results and application experiments,
-the successful conduction of the two Open Calls
-as well as the close collaboration with the EuroCC & CASTIEL projects.

The two Open Calls received a good number of proposals, the second call even more than the first. An involvement of EuroCC National Competence Centres was visible both in submitted proposals as in selected experiments; as FF4EuroHPC organised specific workshops for the NCCs and promoted the FF4EuroHPC project and its open calls.

The first Open Call selected 16 experiments, that are currently running. The 26 second Open Call experiments will officially start in April 2022. More information about the Open Calls can be found here: https://www.ff4eurohpc.eu/en/open-calls/open-call/.

With regard to the project and Open Call 1 experiment kick-offs, both events took place online (due to Covid-19) and all involved FF4EuroHPC and application members attended the meeting.

The project communication and dissemination is also running since the beginning of the project. So far a project website has gone online (https://www.ff4eurohpc.eu) there is a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwLI9lPVN-0lQ5KDqKVc2ig/about)
several brochures are published (https://www.ff4eurohpc.eu/en/multimedia/brochures/) the Open Call 1 experiments are presented online (https://www.ff4eurohpc.eu/en/experiments/) and a newsletter is in place (https://www.ff4eurohpc.eu/en/multimedia/newsletter/).
Furthermore, FF4EuroHPC is also present on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ff4eurohpc/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/FF4EuroHPC?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor).

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)

To support the development of a sustainable HPC ecosystem in Europe, making supercomputing resources available and promoting systematic use of HPC technologies by SMEs,
FF4EuroHPC will stimulate the innovation potential of SMEs by compelling business success stories for HPC innovation and by providing an effective mechanism to enter the market
and exploit new business opportunities.

FF4EuroHPC will work closely together with the future national HPC Competence Centres (EuroCC), and the related Coordination and Support Action (CASTIEL), to integrate them in
both the outreach activities linked to the Open Calls (identifying and including the best innovative SMEs) and in the execution of the planned experiments. With a clear link to
the national HPC Competence Centres, FF4EuroHPC will benefit from their local awareness of the potential for industrial use (& deployment) of HPC resources and advanced services in their regions.

Nonetheless, FF4EuroHPC will not be limited to those national HPC Competence Centres only, but also co-operate and address other stakeholder such as the Digital Innovation Hubs and
industry associations. The interaction between different projects will allow the selection of the best possible set of industrial champions to underpin the importance and potential of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking activities.

FF4EuroHPC will contribute to the improved competitiveness of existing European businesses through the wider exploitation of relevant technology and to the stimulation of new enterprises to address the business opportunities created through that exploitation. It has the potential to make a significant contribution to Europe’s economic growth where the use of advanced technology and the creation of high-value jobs will be at the fore.