European supercomputer pact signed

Fifteen countries yesterday signed a pact to create a pan-European infrastructure for high performance computing which aims to strengthen science, engineering and supercomputer technologies.

The countries, which include Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the new initiative, ‘Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe’ (PACE) to foster and develop this area.

The pact was made in parallel with the European Science Foundation (ESF) initiated Forward Look programme LINCEI which is aimed at enabling Europe’s scientific community and policy makers to develop a vision on how computational sciences will evolve in the coming 10 to 20 years. A strategy will then be presented at the end this year aiming at structuring software and hardware support and development at the European level.

The supercomputer centre will allow joint use of the capacities of more than one supercomputer. The major part of the cost, estimated at around €400m, is to be met by the 15 countries whose computer centres are involved in the project. The rest will be provided by the European Union through the 7th Research Framework Programme. The aim is to provide scientists in Europe with optimal access to supercomputers.