Interest in and use of advanced computing has grown across all areas of national scientific and technological knowledge with the creation of the Advanced Computing Projects Competition, organized by the FCT, through its FCCN unit.
THE 3rd edition received applications from October 25, 2022 to May 31, 2023Of the 163 applications received, 140 were approved, for an overall approval rate of 86%. This number of approved projects represents a record compared to previous editions, which approved 129 and 99 projects, respectively.
Technological advances in various scientific fields in Portugal—such as materials engineering, renewable energy, climate, healthcare, the automotive industry, aerospace engineering, and even psychology and political science—require supercomputing tools. Supercomputers can perform billions of operations per second, which offers a huge advantage, enabling simulations that would otherwise be impossible or would take years to complete. National Advanced Computing Network (RNCA) aggregates and makes available various supercomputing resources to the national Research and Innovation communities since 2019.
The 140 projects approved in the 3rd edition represent access to 50 national institutions, 40 million CPU core hours and 46 thousand GPU hours allocated, with the project value estimated at more than 500 thousand euros.. You approved projects are starting on RNCA platforms that offer High Performance Computing (HPC) resources, Computing in Cloud Scientific (SCC) or Virtual Research Environments (VRE):
- Navigator of the LCA-UC (Advanced Computing Laboratory of the University of Coimbra)
- Oblivion and Vision of HPC-UÉ (HPC Center of the University of Évora)
- Cirrus and Stratus of the INCD (National Distributed Computing Infrastructure)
Beneficiaries have 6 or 12 months to complete HPC and SCC projects, or 24 months for VRE projects. Projects are divided into 3 types of access:
- A0 – Experimental Access with 62 projects (100% approval)
- A1 – Preparatory Access/Development with 47 projects (96% approval)
- A2 – Project/Regular Access with 31 projects (60% approval)
A0 access benefits mostly new users with no prior experience with RNCA. The five information sessions, open to all interested parties, proved effective in attracting new users. Over 200 participants were able to obtain support and clarify their doubts from the technical experts who manage the RNCA platforms.
THE impact of these Advanced Computing competitions grows daily and translates into more competitive projects with: 1) greater process productivity, 2) more innovative scientific results, and 3) better funding opportunities for end users and participating institutions. Since the first edition, there have been more than fifty scientific publications and theses, a number that continues to grow. top 3 scientific areas The areas that access these resources are Engineering, Physics and Chemistry, but there is a growing demand in other areas, such as Environment, Bioinformatics and Sociology.
For research or innovation teams that require more Advanced Computing resources, the role of the RNCA doesn't end there. European partnership EuroHPC he has open competitions access to European supercomputers, such as LUMI, Vega, and Meluxina. The RNCA provides support, training, and consulting, among other things, to the entire community through its partners. National Competence Center, including industry and SMEs.
To learn more about Advanced Computing, see the RNCA page or contact rnca@fccn.pt. And, while you're at it, mark the annual event on your calendar – RNCA Meeting 2023 – which this year takes place in Vila Real on the 7th and 8th of November.
To the approved projects, best wishes for good computing!
