EuroHPC JU to collaborate with the European Commission to launch the second competition to advance European AI

The European Commission has launched a new call, the Frontier AI Grand Challenge, in collaboration with EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.  

The initiative aims to close the strategic gap in high-end AI by supporting the creation of “frontier” general-purpose AI systems capable of adapting across domains with minimal modification, and by leveraging Europe’s world-class supercomputing infrastructure. 

The challenge invites leading European actors to develop frontier AI models with a computational capacity equivalent to at least 400 billion parameters. By using efficient, modular architectures like Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), these models are expected to set new benchmarks for performance and efficiency.  

By granting access to world-class European supercomputing infrastructure, EuroHPC JU will help ensure that frontier AI systems can be developed and trained within Europe.  

Implemented under the EU-funded AI-BOOST project, the Frontier AI Grand Challenge will select one proposal to train a frontier AI model designed to outperform state-of-the-art systems on a range of relevant tasks, using EuroHPC computing resources.  

The selected project will receive up to 2.5% of the overall EuroHPC computing capacity for one year on one or more AI-optimised EuroHPC supercomputers. 

The deadline for submission of applications is set for 13 April 2026 at 17:00 CET (Brussel’s Time).  

Related Links 

EC's Press Release link

More information on how to participate to the Frontier AI Grand Challenge

Background information

This initiative complements wider EU efforts to make Europe the AI continent, as set out in the AI Continent Action Plan, and to strengthen Europe’s AI startup and scale-up ecosystem, ensuring that the most promising innovators have access to the infrastructure needed to compete globally. 

The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.     

To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 12 supercomputers, distributed across Europe including JUPITER in Germany, and Alice Recoque, Europe’s first exascale systems.  

European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.  

Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories (AIF) across Europe, complemented by 13 AI Factory Antennas, to offer free, customised support to SMEs and startups.  

The EuroHPC JU also funds 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. 

With the recent adoption of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150, the EuroHPC JU’s mandate has been expanded with new action pillars dedicated to the deployment of AI Gigafactories across Europe and the advancement of quantum technologies.