Centres of Excellence for HPC Applications

The European Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for High Performance Computing (HPC) applications were selected following the calls under the European Research Infrastructures. They promote the use of upcoming exascale and extreme performance computing capabilities and scale up existing parallel codes towards exascale scaling performance.

Furthermore, they address the skills gap in computational science in the targeted domains by specialized trainings for increased adoption of advanced HPC in industry and academia. They bring together the European world-class knowledge and expertise in applying established mechanisms, user driven development, performance tools and programming models for HPC, and co-design activities for real systems based on leading edge technologies.

Areas of Excellence

The Centres of Excellence cover the areas of engineering, environmental science, renewable energy, materials modelling and design, molecular and atomic modelling, Big Data and Global System science, bio-molecular research, and tools to optimize HPC applications performance.

Why is this important?

The work of the European HPC Centers of Excellence in areas like environmental science, renewable energy, bioscience, medicine or Big Data and Global System science is influencing many aspects of our everyday life. 

As an example, EXCELLERAT is a CoE with a strong focus on HPC in engineering. One major use case of high-performance computing in engineering is the improvement of aerodynamics of cars and airplanes, which reduces fuel consumption and emissions. The improvements achieved through the simulations on HPC resources therefore not only add to the competitiveness of the industries, but also to the societal goal of better air quality.

Life Science

Another example is the use of high-performance computing in medicine by the CoE CompBioMed. The cutting edge of computational biomedicine harnesses computer simulations that are conducted on massively powerful supercomputers. It allows larger and more complex biological systems to be simulated, yielding better, more accurate, and more meaningful output. Find out more in this stunning video:

Urgent Computing

In urgent computing, scientists can use supercomputers to model complex phenomena in order to save lives. The ChEESE CoE is harnessing exascale computing capabilities to prepare our society against natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Leading European HPC centers, academia, hardware developers, as well as SMEs, industry and public governance bodies such as civil protection are working together to prepare European flagship codes for upcoming pre-Exascale and Exascale supercomputing systems to tackle global challenges in the domain of solid earth.