The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (European High Performance Computing JU) has announced the countries that will host the first European Artificial Intelligence (AI) factories, which will be installed over the next year in seven Member States, selecting the proposal with national participation for funding.
The Portuguese participation is led by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), following the guidelines of the Portuguese government, through the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Youth and Modernization.
The AI factories pool national and European Union (EU) resources in a collaborative effort by 17 European countries.
Portuguese participation
The national application is part of a joint initiative by Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Romania, represented respectively by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC- CNS), the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and the N ational Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI București).
The system installed in the AI Factory will develop and operate an AI-enabled computing infrastructure. It will be at the service of the European Union's innovation ecosystem for AI, in order to enable the use of Artificial Intelligence by the Portuguese business fabric, by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), by public administration entities and by national researchers in an academic and non-academic context.
The application in which Portugal is participating will operatean AI Factory associated with the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, located in Barcelona and acquired in a partnership between Portugal, Spain and Turkey. This application also includes an interface structure on Portuguese territory with dedicated human resources to provide high-value services and support for SMEs in the use of this computing infrastructure and the development of artificial intelligence applications.
This application, with national participation and funding, also includes an experimental platform, which will serve as a cutting-edge infrastructure for developing and testing innovative AI models and applications, as well as promoting collaboration across Europe.
About EuroHPC AI Factories
The EuroHPC AI Factories initiative is designed to create a robust, interconnected network of AI centers. These centers, one of which is based in Portugal, are intended to act as one-stop-shops for comprehensive support for start-ups, SMEs and researchers, including, in addition to access to high-performance computing (HPC) resources optimized for AI, training and technical expertise.
These new computing resources will join the Deucalion and MareNostrum 5 supercomputers currently made available by FCT to the national community.
The selection of these seven host entities, which will operate the new AI factories on behalf of EuroHPC, will enable the research and development of cutting-edge AI applications, provide industry with access to advanced AI tools and promote innovation in areas such as healthcare, energy and the climate transition.
