유럽고성능컴퓨터연합(유로HPC)가 산업 및 데이터 경제의 디지털화를 위한 핵심 요소인 시대에, 룩셈부르크가 유로HPC 본사를 설립한다. 본 기관은 2020년까지 HPC 이니셔티브에 투자할 약 10억유로의 공적 자금을 관리하게 되며, 유럽 연합에서 9,800만 유로를 나머지 자금은 유럽 회원국과 이니셔티브 관련 국가들을 통해 받게 된다.
룩셈부르크가 주도하는 유럽고성능컴퓨터연합 공동 사업은 민관 파트너십의 형태를 띠게 되며, 2017년 3월 룩셈부르크, 이탈리아, 스페인, 프랑스, 독일, 포르투갈 및 네덜란드 등이 체결한 협정을 기반으로 진행될 예정이다.
유럽 위원회의 유로HPC 본사의 룩셈부르크 설립 결정에 대해 자비에르 베텔(Xavier Bettel) 룩셈부르크 총리는 “이번 결정은 룩셈부르크가 혁신적인 국가라는 매력을 확인시켜 줍니다.”라며, “국가적 차원에서 룩셈부르크는 디지털 룩셈부르크 이니셔티브와 연계되어 있어, 기업가적이고 건설적이며 참여적인 역할을 수행할 준비가 되어 있습니다” 라며 디지털 전략 강화 계획에 대해 설명했다. 룩셈부르크는 유럽 HPC 네트워크를 구축하는 동안, 2019년 내 자체 슈퍼 컴퓨터를 마련할 예정이다.
High-performance computing is key to the digitisation of industry and the data economy. Its many practical applications will provide benefits to a wide range of industrial and business sectors, as well as to users from academia, scientific communities and the public sector.
EuroHPC will oversee the pooling of resources within Europe to develop supercomputers for processing big data, which is essential for addressing current major scientific and societal challenges. The Luxembourg-based entity will manage around €1 billion of public funds that will be invested in the initiative between now and 2020. €486 million will be provided by the EU, while the rest will come from the Member States and associated countries that are part of the initiative.
A public-private partnership
The European high-performance computing (“EuroHPC”) joint undertaking will take the form of a public-private partnership. It will provide a legal, contractual and organisational framework to its members. The members of the joint undertaking will be the EU, individual EU countries, third-party countries associated with the Horizon 2020 programme and private associations.
Originating from an initiative by Luxembourg, EuroHPC is based on an agreement signed in March 2017 between Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands. Since then, Belgium, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Greece and Croatia.
Luxembourg at the forefront
The European Commission’s decision to locate EuroHPC in Luxembourg was welcomed by Prime Minister and Minister of State Xavier Bettel. “This confirms the attractiveness of Luxembourg as an innovative country,” said the Prime Minister. “The means deployed at the national level are aligned with the Digital Luxembourg initiative, and Luxembourg is ready to once again play a precursory, constructive and participatory role in the implementation of Europe’s digital strategy.”
While waiting for the implementation of the European HPC network, Luxembourg will acquire its own supercomputer already in 2019. This supercomputer, which will benefit from a European co-funding of 35%, will later on be connected to the global EuroHPC network.