IT/RESEARCH : EU LAUNCHES SUPERCOMPUTING PARTNERSHIP.

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE), launched on 9 June in Barcelona with a budget of 500 million, will enable researchers to use supercomputers located in other countries. The aim is to provide access to computing power of up to 1,000 trillion calculations per second or more than 100,000 of today's fastest PCs.

"Access to computing capacities is a key driver for the development of modern science and technology and for addressing the major challenges of our time, like climate change, energy saving and ageing of the population," commented Commissioner Neelie Kroes (Digital Agenda). The Commission is contributing 70 million under the Seventh R&D Framework Programme. Spain, France, Italy and Germany are the main initiators, with 16 other countries.

The fastest computer in Europe, JUGENE in Germany (fifth fastest in the world), will be the first supercomputer available to all European researchers under the PRACE initiative. By 2015, other supercomputers in Germany, France, Italy and Spain will be accessible across the EU.

Researchers will be able to use PRACE infrastructure from 1 August this year, notes the Commission, after their application has been approved by a common European peer review process. The initiative is open to other countries capable of hosting supercomputers.