Belgium joins the European supercomputers initiative
Belgium is officially joining the European Commission’s High Performance Computing initiative. Our country signed the entry today in the margins of the Telecom Council in Luxembourg. The European Commission’s initiative was set up to further expand Europe’s digital infrastructure and accelerate the development of supercomputers.
The European Commission launched the High Performance Computing Initiative on 23rd March in Rome, together with Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The project brings together three different technologies: exascale High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data and a Cloud ecosystem.
Supercomputers and supercomputer networks have enormous computing power, allowing them to work on thousands more calculations compared to ordinary computers. They are therefore also ultimately suitable for the testing and developing of complicated algorithms or calculation formulas. For example, supercomputers can provide a major contribution to the production of new virtual molecules for new drugs, studying global warming and climate models and the rapid mapping of earthquakes and epidemics. But, in addition to all of this, supercomputers will also be providing some unique future contributions to analysing air pollution, research into renewable energy sources and analysing data of car sensors and cameras on board cars, in order to develop autonomous cars.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Digital Agenda, Alexander De Croo is already incredibly enthusiastic: “Belgium is very pleased to be joining the European Commission’s and seven other European countries’ High Performance Computing initiative. This project is a great opportunity to develop the digital infrastructure of the future together. Supercomputers will significantly change our economy and society. This will include the faster development of drugs, or innovative research into renewable energy. It’s important for our country to join the innovative forefront in Europe.”
Belgian participation
Belgium will be appointing two advocates who will be participating with the European discussions about the High Performance Computing Initiative. The aim is to create an intra-Belgian coordination, which will link both the federal level (DTO and Belspo), as well as the three different regions.
