PNRR: the new National Supercomputing Centre gets underway
From the space economy to the climate, from fundamental physics to smart cities, from astrophysics to the environment, from engineering to molecular sciences, from omics and in-silico medicine to quantum computing: these are the strategic sectors in the service of which ICSC will operate - the National Research Centre in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing was set up by the PNRR and financed by Next Generation EU funds with over 319 million euros - in which the Politecnico also participates as part of the Education and Research mission coordinated by the MUR Ministry of University and Research. More than 400 representatives of the 52 partners of the ICSC Foundation, which governs the new Centre, from the public and private sectors, gathered on 25 and 26 November at the Bologna Technopolo, where the Centre’s hub will be located, for the kick-off meeting of the mission activities. The Minister for University and Research Anna Maria Bernini also spoke at the event.
“I am honoured to be witness to the first steps that make Italy the first country equipped with a nationwide, shared and open cloud datalake computing infrastructure that enables a faster network for transmitting, sharing, and analysing large volumes of data between public and private users – said University and Research Minister Anna Maria Bernini. Thanks to this Centre – the Minister added – Italy will be able to benefit from better tools to understand reality and to act more efficiently and with new tools, both for the public and private sectors”.
The two-day event therefore marked the start of ICSC's scientific and technological activities, with presentations of the objectives and programmes of each of the National Centre’s research and development units. ICSC is organised into a structure that includes a hub with steering tasks, an infrastructural spoke, and ten thematic spokes, dedicated to scientific research and technological development in areas deemed of strategic interest to the country in order to address the upcoming challenges and build a sustainable future for our society.
ICSC's activities will rely on a cloud datalake supercomputing infrastructure, thanks to which users from both the public research and private business worlds will have virtually unlimited computing resources at their disposal through an integrated system distributed throughout the country.
The National Supercomputing Centre will carry out Research & Development activities, at the national and international level, for innovation in the field of simulations, high-performance computing and data analysis. These activities will be carried out through a cutting-edge infrastructure for high performance computing and big data management, which will establish within a system the existing resources and promote and integrate new computing centres and emerging technologies, such as quantum computers. The digital infrastructure will be at the service of both scientific research and private companies with computing resources and services, tools that today have taken on a key role in the development of many strategic sectors for the country’s growth and economy and for our society. ICSC will thus create a national system of computational resources that will have no equal on the international scene, which will make Italy more competitive internationally and strengthen Europe’s leadership on a global scale. In addition to its scientific and technological mission, and in line with the transversal priorities of the PNRR, the Centre will invest in the enhancement of women’s and young people’s careers, and the revitalisation of the South of the Country.