A retrospective. Here’s to the year 2023 in which we have already accomplished much as the National Competence Center (NCC) for High Performance Computing! Thus, we have helped nearly 100 start-ups, SMEs with contact, technical advice, POCs, community building and much more. From AI to Machine Learning to Quantum Computing. We also supported nearly 985 academia with training and consulting where HPC was needed.
Skewed relationships
Back to basics for a moment. Why is there actually a Dutch National Competence Center for HPC? In 2017, only 5% of all HPC resources worldwide were supplied from the European Union. While the European Union uses as much as one-third of all these global resources. Therefore, the importance of improving and/or increasing Europe’s own HPC infrastructure, research and companies became apparent.
Major European HPC Challenges
In doing so, the European Commission ran into challenges. One of the biggest challenges Europe has struggled with is the vast difference in HPC skills by country and contact within European HPC entities. That is why the Eurocc1 Project was launched, establishing what is known as National Competence Centers in each member state. The local NCC is the first point of contact for interested parties from that country in the world of HPC. We are now in phase two of the EuroCC project and, as NCC, we also offer training courses such as “Introduction to Supercomputing,” technical support and consulting for professionals in SMEs, government agencies and industry.
How can you offer services free of charge?
Our NCC in the Netherlands was established from the European project EuroCC funded from EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. The grant for all Joint Undertakings comes from Castiel, the European Research and Innovation program, which aims at equal distribution of HPC resources, improving HPC competencies, and improved competitiveness with countries outside Europe. Castiel funds 50% of our NCC. In addition, Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland is also contributing half financially.
Therefore, the advice and services offered by the NCCs are free of charge. Sometimes you may need more HPC power. There may sometimes be a charge for this. You could describe us as your Kick Starter in the area of HPC deployment.
Wondering what we can help you with? Send an email to Andreea Moga Customer Success Lead & AI Coach.
