Access Policy of the EuroHPC

Access Policy of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Supercomputers v1.0

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is acquiring 3 pre-exascale and 5 petascale supercomputers which will be located at and operated by supercomputing centres in the EU. Access time will be allocated to European scientific, industrial and public sector users, matching their demanding application requirements, according to the principles stated in the EuroHPC JU Council Regulation. The JU will manage access time, from 35% up to 50% of their total capacity, of these supercomputers.

In June 2021 EuroHPC Joint Undertaking published the Decision Of The Governing Board Of The EuroHPCJoint Undertaking No 06/2021 on the Access Policy to the Union’s share on the access time to the pre-exascale and petascale supercomputers. The Access Policy provides a transparent and equitable framework that gives all users a fair chance to the Union’s access time and takes into consideration their needs and the available resources.

The following principles of the procedures are described in this policy document:

• The use of the pre-exascale and petascale supercomputers should be primarily for public research and innovation purposes, for any user from academia, industry or the public sector.
• User allocation of access time to the supercomputers should primarily be based on open calls for expression of interest launched by the Joint Undertaking and evaluated by independent experts.
• Upon decision by the Governing Board, it should be possible to grant a small percentage of access time without a call for expression of interest in some exceptional cases such as strategic European initiatives or in emergency and crisis management situations.
• The Joint Undertaking should be allowed to carry out some limited economic activities for commercial purposes.
• Access should be granted to users established in the Union or a country associated to Horizon 2020.
• The access rights should be equitable to any user and allocated in a transparent manner.
• The Governing Board should define and monitor the access rights to the Union's share of access time for each supercomputer.

It is essential that the computation time is offered in such way that it maximises the positive impact of these systems on R&I, as well as commercial, activities in Europe. A well-defined access policy will ensure optimal allocation of resources and maximise the return of investment of the involved supercomputing systems.

According to the conditions set out in the Regulation and based on established best-practices, the allocation of Joint Undertaking’s share of time in the EuroHPC supercomputers will be carried through continuous calls for applications. The general process for the allocation comprises the following steps:

1. Definition of the scope of the call
2. Opening/closure of the call
3. Application submission & Eligibility check
4. Evaluation of applications
5. Selection of applications for allocation
6. Award and allocation of access time for projects
7. Monitoring
   Source: https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2021-03/Decision%2006.2021%20-%20Access%20policy.pdf