EuroHPC JU awards contract to GÉANT to hyperconnect European supercomputers

With this new connectivity service, provided by GÉANT, the Association of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), research communities, the public sector, industry, and other innovation stakeholders will gain direct, high-performance access to EuroHPC resources.

GÉANT was selected following an open call for tenders (EUROHPC/2024/OP/0008) launched by the EuroHPC JU in December 2024. The contract, valued at up to 60 million euro, covers the design, implementation, and operation of the hyperconnectivity infrastructure over a period of 48 months.

With this agreement, Europe takes a major step in strengthening its supercomputing ecosystem. This new federated, ultra-high bandwidth network builds upon the reliable and secure GÉANT network infrastructure that has served European science for decades to create a hyperconnected infrastructure with transmission capabilities in the terabits-per-second range. Set up in partnership with GÉANT, this infrastructure expands upon the established multi-country ecosystem and leverages the reach and expertise of European NRENs, and will greatly enhance data exchange between EuroHPC supercomputers, national supercomputers, AI Factories, quantum facilities, as well as research and data centres across Europe. 

Once deployed, the network infrastructure is expected to bring significant additional benefits to European users of the hyperconnected and federated supercomputing ecosystem, including:

• High-throughput capacity, with transmission speeds targeted in the terabits-per-second range, to enable faster data movement in support of modelling, AI and simulation workloads.
• Robust security architecture designed to safeguard sensitive and cross-border research data.
• Federated design, connecting European, national and regional supercomputing centres into a unified structure.
• High-capacity connections to Internet Exchanges and data providers, ensuring flexible access for all EuroHPC JU use cases, including users from the public sector and industry.
• Flexible and adaptable services that will allow incorporation of emerging technologies and meet the varying needs of the supercomputing ecosystem.

Initial deployment activities are expected to begin in the coming months, with the first services becoming available to users in 2026. These services will progressively expand to connect all EuroHPC supercomputers and their associated AI and quantum sites, enabling researchers, public administrations, and industry across Europe to benefit from seamless, high-speed, and secure access to EuroHPC resources.

“We look forward to the successful deployment of this high-speed, resilient connectivity by GÉANT, which will significantly enhance access to EuroHPC systems. This step will upgrade our support to the demanding scientific, AI, quantum, and industrial workloads and strengthen Europe’s federated HPC infrastructure and digital sovereignty.” – Anders Jensen, Executive Director of EuroHPC JU

“GÉANT, the Association of European NRENs with a rich history in providing the infrastructure and services essential for research and education, is extremely proud to be delivering hyperconnectivity infrastructure for this important element in Europe’s exciting future. We look forward to working alongside the EuroHPC JU to deliver this.” – Lise Fuhr, Chief Executive Officer of GÉANT

About EuroHPC JU

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a legal and funding entity created in 2018 to enable the European Union and EuroHPC JU participating countries to coordinate their efforts and pool their resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.  

In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured eleven supercomputers located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: JUPITER in Germany ranks at 4, becoming Europe’s new fastest supercomputer along with LUMI in Finland (9^th place) and  Leonardo in Italy (10^th place). Through the EuroHPC Access Calls, European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from these EuroHPC supercomputers, which rank among the world’s most powerful.    

Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 13 AI factories across Europe that offer free, customised support to SMEs and startups. 

The EuroHPC JU is also deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with supercomputers. In June, EuroHPC JU inaugurated PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland, the first EuroHPC quantum computer to be inaugurated, marking a milestone in Europe’s leap into the quantum era.

In parallel, the EuroHPC JU is investing in research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain: from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise. 

About GÉANT

GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe's economic growth and competitiveness. The GÉANT Association and the NRENs develop, deliver and promote advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and support innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst our members, partners and the wider research and education networking community. Together, GÉANT and the NRENs interconnect 50 million users at 10,000 research and education institutions; and via extensive global partnerships and GÉANT-managed networking projects, reach over 100 countries worldwide.