Press Release by The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU)
The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has launched a call for tender to select a vendor for the acquisition, delivery, installation and maintenance of the mid-range supercomputer, DAEDALUS to be located in Greece.
The new supercomputing system, capable of executing more than 60 petaflops or 60 million billion calculations per second (aggregated performance), will drive European innovation and support scientific advancements. It will enable new applications across a wide range of fields including engineering, chemistry and health sciences.
DAEDALUS supercomputer will be available to serve a wide range of users, no matter where in Europe they are located, in the scientific community, industry and the public sector. Access to the computing resources of the new machine will be jointly managed by the EuroHPC JU and the DAEDALUS consortium in proportion to their investment.
The system will be managed and operated by GRNET S.A. The National Infrastructures for Research and Technology, in Athens, Greece, operating under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance. It will be installed in the new data centre located in the building of the former Power Station of the Lavrion Technological Cultural Park of the National Technical University of Athens.
The procurement call aims to acquire the latest technologies for all components, ensuring seamless integration of hardware, software, and supporting equipment to manage tasks in High Performance Computing (HPC), High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It includes implementation services, integration with power and cooling infrastructures, and personnel training and support.
This latest procurement will add a new mid-range supercomputer to the EuroHPC JU portfolio of systems and supports the EU’s mission to provide European scientists and industry with access to cutting-edge HPC infrastructures and services.
More details
The estimated total value for this procurement call is EUR 36 million. The EuroHPC JU will fund 35% of the total cost of the new system, while the other 65% will be funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan ‘Greece 2.0’. Cyprus, Montenegro and North Macedonia are also involved in the project as members of the DAEDALUS consortium.
The closing date of this call is 02.09.2024 (12PM).
More information can be found in the full tender specifications and all relevant documents are available on the dedicated portal with the Public Tender code: 352893.
Background
The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity, created in 2018 and reviewed in 2021 by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173, with the mission to:
- develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the EU a world-leading federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing, quantum computing, service and data infrastructure ecosystem;
- support the development and uptake of demand-oriented and user-driven innovative and competitive supercomputing systems based on a supply chain that will ensure components, technologies and knowledge limiting the risk of disruptions and the development of a wide range of applications optimised for these systems;
- widen the use of that supercomputing infrastructure to a large number of public and private users and support the development of key HPC skills for European science and industry.
In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe, with more coming soon. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.
No matter where in Europe they are located, European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from these EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.
About GRNET S.A. – The National Infrastructures for Research and Technology.
GRNET – National Infrastructures for Research and Technology, provides advanced network, cloud computing and IT infrastructures and services to academic and research institutions, to educational bodies at all levels, as well as to agencies of the public, broader public and private sector. It holds a key role as the coordinator of all e-Infrastructures in education and research, leveraging the educational and research activity in the country towards the development of applied and technological research. GRNET, operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Governance, contributes to the country’s Digital Transformation via in-depth analysis, technological studies, standard solutions and specialized know-how. The company further develops and executes the strategy for national digital competencies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, open science, while serving since 1998, on a daily basis, hundreds of thousands of users, in the strategic fields of Public Administration, Education, Research, Health and Culture.