PRACE Sixth Implementation Phase Project

The PRACE RI research infrastructure was set up in 2010 aiming at providing a world-class pan-European supercomputer infrastructure to support the modeling and simulation needs of European researchers, both in the scientific and industrial sectors. The PRACE-6IP project involves the continuation of the infrastructure maintained by PRACE and the provision of state-of-the-art services, accessible to users, without geographical restrictions, consolidating and integrating supercomputer resources at European level.  

The purpose of the project is: 

• The seamless and efficient provision of a pan-European Tier-0 service to users for the promotion of research excellence and innovation. The Tier-0 resources access process includes the evaluation of proposals for the engagement of computational time, as well as services tailored to the needs of users and users from academia and industry, including the HPC Centers of Excellence.
• To support the implementation of software through teams so that Tier-0 users and communities adapt and adopt new software solutions to meet the rapidly evolving HPC architecture and programming environment.
• To collaborate with HPC Centers of Excellence and other national and Community-funded actions focusing on similar or complementary actions for HPC codes and applications. 
• To identify and meet the needs of new users and to ensure openness in new user communities and new applications. The approach of the scientific communities and industry by encouraging the industrial utilization of HPC services.y 
• To perform actions such as service prototyping, software development, etc., which are based on the national HPC infrastructure (Tier-1) and are necessary to support Tier-0 services and a functioning European HPC ecosystem. 
• The coordination and elaboration of training and skill development programs, adapted to the needs of academic and industrial research and the relevant public services. 
• The implementation of an equal and inclusive governance and a flexible business model, to ensure long-term economic sustainability.
• To support a strategy for developing a rich world-class HPC system environment, with different machines architectures - towards exascale level systems - including the roadmap for the implementation thereof, at national and European level, in particular in the context of the EuroHPC initiative. 
• To coordinate the activities with the ETP4HPC platform and the HPC Application Excellence Centers in order to support the European HPC strategy for the next generation of computer systems, technologies and applications.
• The development of a policy of international cooperation and related activities in the field of HPC.