On May 12th and 13th, the kickoff meeting for the Barcelona Supercomputing Center's AI Factory (BSC AI Factory) took place at the initiative's coordinating entity's headquarters, with the project's associated partners from Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Romania. This project is part of a EuroHPC JU initiative, AI Factories, which aims to boost the development of Artificial Intelligence solutions in the business and public ecosystem.
AI factories, which include the BSC AI Factory, are co-financed by European and national funds and aim to create a network of computing resources to accelerate Europe's digital transformation. These factories will enable the use of Artificial Intelligence by European businesses, including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), public administration entities, and national researchers, both in academic and non-academic settings.
Portugal was represented at this meeting by João Nuno Ferreira, general coordinator of FCCN, digital services unit of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), by Susana Caetano, manager of the FCT Advanced Computing service, developed by FCCN, and by two representatives of the National Center for Advanced Computing: António Sousa and Rui Oliveira.
National participation in the project is part of a joint initiative by Spain, Portugal, Türkiye and Romania, represented respectively by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), the Foundation for Science and Technology, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) and the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI București).
This initiative will give rise to an AI Factory associated with the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and located in Barcelona.
AI Factories Webinar on May 20th
The project's first steps toward connecting with the community will be taken on May 20th at 9:30 a.m., through the session "AI Factories: Open for Business." This webinar is aimed at start-ups, SMEs and innovators looking to access high-performance computing resources.
In this session, interested parties can learn how to apply for resources, the different types of access, and learn about success stories. program of the webinar is now available.
InovIA vouchers launched on June 6th
FCCN, the digital services unit of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), will also launch, through a presentation session, the InoVIA – Vouchers for Innovation program, an initiative that aims to support national startups and SMEs in free and simplified access to advanced computing resources, including the Deucalion and MareNostrum 5 supercomputers.
These vouchers are also an incentive for companies to access the new AI Factory, mentioned above, in the future.
- Date: June 6, 2025
- Time: 2:00 p.m.
- Location: AI Hub Alvalade, Lisbon
- Agenda and records.
