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Another milestone on the way to becoming an NHR data center has been reached: RWTH Aachen University – together with Technical University Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) – would like to become part of the National High Performance Computing Network.
In the Joint Science Conference (GWK), the federal and state governments have agreed to jointly promote not only research buildings and large-scale facilities but also high-performance computing at universities. The aim is to create a coordinated network of several National High Performance Computing Centres (NHR), which will provide resources and services for high-performance computing for all German universities.
The new funding concept envisions that the federal and state governments will no longer only cover investment costs, but also operating and personnel costs. Up to 62.5 million euros will be available annually for the entire NHR network.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is responsible for reviewing applications for funding within the framework of national supercomputing at universities. After the corresponding publication of the call for proposals on January 7, 2020, computer centres interested in funding had to submit a funding proposal until April 17, 2020.
The RWTH Aachen applies together with the TU Darmstadt – in cooperation with the JARA Center for Simulation and Data Science – to be accepted into the national network for high-performance computing. In addition, Computational Engineering Sciences (CES) is a focal point for both universities, which has been reflected for years in Collaborative Research Centres and other interdisciplinary activities as well as in CES bachelor and master programmes.
Beside the RWTH Aachen University also the University of Paderborn from NRW applied for admission of their computer centre. The state NRW expressly approves and supports both applications.
The IT Center of the RWTH and also the University Computer Center of the TU Darmstadt have been operating high-performance computers of supra-regional importance – so-called Tier 2 computers – for years. These systems have been open to academic researchers in Germany since 2017. Thus, both locations not only have the necessary infrastructure to operate future NHR systems securely and economically, but also the corresponding experience.
Already today, TU Darmstadt and RWTH are working together in NFDI4Ing on the topic of research data management (RDM) for engineers. In NHR4CES the two applicants combine their strengths in High Performance Computing (HPC) applications, algorithms and methods as well as in the efficient use of HPC hardware. The main benefits include engineering and material sciences as well as engineering oriented physics, chemistry and medicine. The goal of NHR4CES is to comprehensively support the development of scalable algorithms and software for the design, computation and manufacture of technical products that are of central importance for developments in the economy and society in a combination of HPC and RDM.
Now all that is left for us to do is keeping our fingers crossed for RWTH Aachen University and TU Darmstadt University – in cooperation with CSD – to achieve their goal of becoming part of the NHR network!
Responsible for the content of this article are Tanja Wittpoth-Richter and Nicole Kaminski.
