Every day, some of the fastest, most powerful machines use thousands of CPUs to perform the hardest calculations – and they do it incredibly fast. As the amount of data available increases, understanding and exploring supercomputers' full potential and optimising their performance is essential. These supercomputers are all over Europe, from Portugal to Finland. They are part of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) initiative, dedicated to installing new machines in several countries, and are available to researchers and companies.

All these supercomputers have different architectures and procedures. However, “users need to be able to move from one High-Performance Computing (HPC) system to another easily and seamlessly”, says Emmanuel Ory, Development Manager at CSC – IT Centre for Science and project coordinator. That’s where EPICURE comes in: the project wants to offer high-level support for users of the EuroHPC network, “with an approach that was previously difficult to find”, adds the researcher.

Until now, the support provided to HPC users focused mainly on short-term operational support based on basic HPC skills and knowledge. The EPICURE project wants to change that, taking that support to the “next level” and significantly impacting supercomputers' productivity and efficiency.

The project's primary goal is to ensure that European scientists and researchers can fully use the EuroHPC systems by providing specialised support through Application Support Teams (ASTs). The initiative can be an important qualitative leap to improve the user support services for applicants to the EuroHPC JU systems access calls, and foster collaboration and user empowerment to boost European research and economy.

“The support provided by all centres is consistently rated as excellent. However, harnessing these machines requires a broad range of expertise. The primary objective is to facilitate computation (simulation, digital twins, AI) at increasingly larger scales”, stated João Carlos Barbosa, a researcher at the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), one of the 16 partners of EPICURE.

Optimise codes, performance, and scalability

The project draws knowledge and experience of current and future EuroHPC supercomputer hosting organisations to provide architecture-specific training, hackathons, webinars, and workshops in various EU countries. The sharing of expertise among said centres will expectantly empower users (from academia and industry) to swiftly scale up their applications on any available computing platform. EPICURE will create ASTs into place and develop a portal to problem-solve complex issues.

“They will actively aid users in adapting their codes for efficient running on EuroHPC systems, selecting appropriate compiler flags and mathematical libraries, and developing deployment recipes. The ASTs will collaborate with leading code developers to optimise codes, enhance performance, and improve scalability through detailed analysis and benchmarking”, added João Carlos Barbosa.

“Understanding user needs”

These teams will also organise specialised training events during major international HPC conferences to educate and inform users about the latest techniques and best practices. If they run into problems, users can interact with the support crew thanks to the creation of a European HPC Application Support portal, which will serve as a single point of contact, further facilitating the broader community's adoption of these technologies.

“This portal will inform users about EuroHPC systems, their architectures, access methods, and available support services. It will be a valuable resource for HPC users from both the public and private sectors, including SMEs, improving the user experience and fostering a robust HPC community.”, said the Portuguese researcher.

João Carlos Barbosa believes that EPICURE can be perceived as a project aimed at extending and "democratising" access to the high-performance computing (HPC) ecosystem.
To provide highly technical and specialised services, the EPICURE consortium includes partners from 14 countries and focuses on knowledge sharing. This collaborative and integrated approach promises to significantly boost responsiveness and excellence in advanced computing support in Europe.

João Carlos Barbosa highlighted INESC TEC’s experience with Portugal’s petascale supercomputer Deucalion to point out how EPICURE plans to build a knowledge-sharing platform: “EPICURE's structured support and coordination among different work packages will lead to better understanding and addressing user needs. Creating best practice guidelines and training events will further help users maximise the capabilities of the supercomputers. All these combined efforts will lead to more efficient use of resources, reduced time to solution, and improved EuroHPC system productivity.”

Led by Finland’s IT Center for Science (CSC), EPICURE welcomes partners from Portugal, Finland, Spain, Italy, Czechia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Germany, and France. The EPICURE project received a budget of €10M, with a contribution of €5M (50%) from the EuroHPC JU. The EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe.

EPICURE received funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No.101139786.