10.07.2023
Austria continues to invest in High-Performance Computing
Federal minister Martin Polaschek (BMBWF) announces initiatives to foster supercomputing expertise for academia, industry, and the public sector.
On 10 July 2023, Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) hosted a press conference in the Science Center Arsenal of TU Wien. The event was organized by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) to inform about the latest federal investments in supercomputing projects.
EuroCC – European Competence Centers for High-Performance Computing
Since 2018, Austria is participating in the 
EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU), an ambitious initiative for High-Performance Computing (HPC) that not only builds up a world-class European HPC ecosystem but also oversees the establishment of national HPC competence centers in more than 30 European countries. The Austrian competence center EuroCC Austria, closely affiliated with VSC, has been active since 2020, supporting companies and researchers in HPC, High-Performance Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence, helping new users get access to supercomputers, and providing world-class HPC training.
Minister Martin Polaschek announced that the EuroCC project remains strategically important for Austria’s HPC landscape and as such the funding of the national competence center EuroCC Austria has been approved for the next three years (2023-2025). With Austrian participation, the EuroCC project is a significant step towards achieving the JU's goal of becoming a world leader in HPC and educating the next generation of HPC experts.
LEONARDO – more supercomputing power for Austria’s research
The BMBWF also supports Austria’s participation in the LEONARDO consortium in Italy, which just last fall celebrated the inauguration of the LEONARDO supercomputer – one of the most powerful HPC machines worldwide. As per the partnership agreement, a part of LEONARDO’s resources is reserved for users based in Austria. The first 11 Austrian projects have been awarded compute time through the AURELEO call and started in June 2023.
"Federal funding in the HPC field provides all research teams in Austria with access to computing resources at the Vienna Scientific Cluster. At the European level, participation in the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the LEONARDO consortium provides access to petascale and pre-exascale computers as well as access to the expert network of the EuroCC competence centers."
Dr. Claudia Blaas-Schenner (VSC Research Center, TU Wien and EuroCC Austria)
Investing in national infrastructure
Furthermore, the BMBWF continues to invest in the national supercomputing infrastructure. Especially in AI applications and advanced modeling the need for computing power is growing, making it necessary to expand HPC resources available for academia and industry on the national level.
The crucial infrastructure project MUSICA (Multi-Site Computer Austria) worth around €20 million was approved for funding last year. Within this project, a consortium of six Austrian universities will procure a new HPC system and enter the highly innovative field of quantum computing.
In addition, the BMBWF – in cooperation with the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) – also launched a call for proposals totaling €40 million for the strategic development of digital research infrastructures and infrastructures for the development and exploitation of the arts (EEK) at Austrian universities.
News posting of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) (German)
News posting of TU Wien (German)
(Announcement first posted on 10.07.2023.)