July 2019

Dear ETP4HPC Members and Partners,
 
As we speak, our Office ‘scribes’ and many of our SRA Working Group participants are sharpening their pencils, ready to draw the first versions of the chapters of our Strategic Research Agenda (SRA 4).The teams are gathered, the plans are drawn (see our excellent Blueprint for the next Strategic Research Agenda, completed in April), we are gathering material and ideas (through suggestion for Working Group contents and Research Clusters), involving others (BDVA, Centres of Excellence, PRACE, AIOTI, Industrial Users, etc.), and adhering to our project plan (the deadline is December 2019).

This SRA is special for three reasons. First, this is the first SRA that will officially be delivered to the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, more precisely, to the  EuroHPC Research and Advisory Innovation Group, which in turn will define its own roadmap based on our SRA and the input received from BDVA. We must keep that in mind when defining our SRA milestones – half of the funding comes from the participating member states and we need to ensure that our suggestions are also acceptable to them. Secondly, I am very glad to see a huge improvement in the quality of member participation in this SRA. It is reflected in the additional working group leaders (now, each SRA working group has at least two leaders, which will ensure its balanced development) and also in the input provided by our SRA contributors when signing up for this effort. Thirdly, we have managed to engage with other organisations and projects that have an impact on our European HPC world – BDVA, EPI, AIOTI, the Centres of Excellence – in a well-coordinated manner.

Industrial Users of HPC have always been close to our heart. Our Steering Board has recently approved a process aimed at recruiting those industrial organisations whose objective is to pursue HPC-related research and work within our Association to define the European HPC research priorities (through our SRA and EuroHPC RIAG, for example). We are looking forward to welcoming the first of such members in our ranks.

We have also been very active in different events, with stands and BoFs and workshops (EuroHPC Summit Week, Teratec Forum, ISC). For the second year, we hosted some of our SME members on our booth at ISC. This initiative was highly appreciated, it will be pursued next year, and extended to SC19 in Denver this November. We will contact all our members shortly concerning SC19.

Now, Summer is here and I want you to relax and rest – plenty of challenges lie on the road ahead.


Jean-Pierre Panziera
ETP4HPC Chairman