Credit: Luxinnovation
Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has announced the launch of a new joint call for projects, in partnership with the National Research Fund (Fonds national de la recherche - FNR) and Luxinnovation, in the field of high-performance computing (HPC).
This call for projects is open to companies and research institutions wishing to take advantage of HPC capacities in their research field. Like previous joint calls, launched in the fields of health technologies and defence, this call is aimed at encouraging close and interactive collaboration between private companies and public research institutes (PPP – public-private partnerships) to carry out innovative research projects on HPC infrastructures.
According to the initiators of this call for projects, HPC is an innovation accelerator that offers enormous potential for companies of all sizes in different sectors. HPC can reduce the costs of companies' research and development (R&D) processes through simulations and virtual prototyping. It is considered particularly useful for performing simulations that require high-resolution and high-precision results in order to look into the granularity of large and complex problems with many parameters. HPC also offers value in big data analytics and training of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms with millions of data points. Nevertheless, HPC is used quite rarely in the private sector, often due to a lack of necessary expertise to scale numerical simulations or perform big data analyses on large computing systems.
This joint funding call thus aims to support the implementation of high quality, high impact and innovative applied research projects that will benefit from HPC in order to accelerate the digital transformation process in companies by integrating computer aided engineering, design and analytics as well as HPC into their innovation process. In this first edition, the HPC call for projects targets private stakeholders with substantial expertise in the field of computer-aided R&D, big data analytics or training of AI algorithms, but with little or no expertise in the use of HPC infrastructures, i.e. companies that need to rely on support from a public research institute to achieve a successful transfer to HPC.
The projects to be carried out within the framework of this call must be innovative, of the highest quality and in the field of industrial research. They must also have a positive and sustainable effect on the future development of the companies' computer-aided R&D competencies, knowledge and expertise. The research projects must address innovative problems that require large allocations of computing and data storage resources. Applications must state why the work requires access to an HPC structure and cannot be performed on a smaller computing system.
The joint call for projects targets industrial research projects in the following HPC application fields:
- complex simulations with multiple parameters;
- virtual testing and optimisation (of new product designs, processes, complex materials);
- big data analytics and visualisation of millions of data points;
- artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms;
- predictions and forecasting of complex models.
The thematic areas thereby include manufacturing, advanced engineering, materials, energy and environmental technology, as well as telecommunications.
This joint call for projects will be accompanied by a dedicated portfolio of aid schemes offered by the Economy Ministry, which takes into account the different skill levels of private actors in the use of computer-aided R&D. The goal is to create a general awareness of the use of simulation and modelling tools and techniques in companies' R&D activities and to support a sustainable evolution towards an ecosystem of HPC use. Together with the dedicated portfolio of aid schemes, the joint call intends to accelerate the digital transformation process in companies by integrating computer-aided engineering and design as well as HPC into their innovation process.
To facilitate the emergence of projects and to support interested actors in their efforts, Luxinnovation, the national agency for the promotion of innovation, has set up an online platform where companies and public research actors are invited to submit their project ideas from 15 September to 15 November 2022: https://research-industry-collaboration.lu/
