Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking

What it is

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion. BACKGROUND: the European High Performance Computing (EuroHPC) Joint Undertaking was established in October 2018 as a legal and financial framework, pooling resources from the EU, 32 countries, and two Private Members: the European Technology Platform for HPC (ETP4HPC) and the Big Data Value (BDVA) Associations. So far, the Joint Undertaking has used funds from the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for its strategic investments. After 20 months of operation, it has substantially increased overall investment in HPC at European level and has started to deliver on its mission to restore Europe’s position as a leading HPC power. By the end of 2020, it will deploy a world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure accessible to public and private users all over Europe. This will increase the EU’s ability to produce innovative HPC technology. Global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have also shown the importance of investing in High Performance Computing and health-related modelling platforms and tools, as they are playing a key role in the fight against the pandemic, often in combination with other digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. High Performance Computing modelling platforms and tools are critical tools for the current and future pandemics, and they will play a key role in health and personalised medicine. The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy adopted the report by Maria da Graça CARVALHO (EPP, PT) on the proposal for a Council regulation on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. As a reminder, the proposed new regulation aims to establish the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), with a budget of EUR 8 billion for the period 2021-2033. This report builds on this proposal and includes a set of amendments aimed at ensuring that this joint undertaking will fulfil its greater goal of serving EU citizens, businesses (including SMEs), research institutions and administrations, while remaining aligned with the EU’s main development and sustainability goals. The report develops the overall objectives of the Joint Undertaking to include, inter alia , the following: - to federate the hyper-connected supercomputing and data infrastructure, through high-quality network infrastructures in all Member States, and interconnect it with the European data spaces , in particular with the European Health Data Space; - to further develop and support a highly competitive, social, sustainable, energy-efficient and innovative, interconnected, interoperable and secure supercomputing and data ecosystem in Europe contributing to the scientific and technological leadership and the standing strategic autonomy of the Union in the digital transition, while reducing dependence on foreign technology; - to promote, facilitate and widen the use of supercomputing services in all sectors and to contribute to the development of advanced digital skills, competences and knowledge that European science, society,…

Frequently asked