Invitation to Tender to Procure CASPIr Supercomputer

Once deployed, CASPIr (Computation Analysis and Simulation Platform for Ireland) will be a mid-range supercomputer capable of performing over 15 petaflops, or 15 million billion operations every second. It will support cutting-edge AI and machine learning workloads, handling small-scale training and inference tasks as part of larger simulation and data-analysis workflows.

The new supercomputer will serve a wide range of users in the scientific community, industry and the public sector, both in Ireland and across Europe. Access to its computing resources will be jointly managed by Ireland and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) in proportion to their respective investments.   

More details

The deadline to submit a request to participate in this procurement process is 05-05-2026, 12:00 IST.

Following this deadline, the University of Galway and the EuroHPC JU will review the submissions and initiate a competitive dialogue. This process will allow the contracting authority to engage in detailed discussions with selected candidates and to thoroughly evaluate the market's technical offerings in order to select the most suitable solutions. 

Upon completion of the dialogue phase, the candidates will be invited to submit a tender. The University of Galway and the EuroHPC JU will evaluate these tenders, select the best offer and conclude a contract with the chosen provider to acquire, deliver, install and maintain this new EuroHPC supercomputer. 

The total acquisition budget of the system is up to EUR 25 million, which will be co-financed by the EuroHPC JU (35%) with budget coming from the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) and by Ireland (65%) through national funds.

More details on the invitation tender can be found on this dedicated page.

CASPIr will be jointly owned by the University of Galway and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and operated by the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC). A hosting agreement has been signed between the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and the University of Galway in October 2025.

Background 

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. 

Additionally, the EuroHPC JU is deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers, marking a milestone in Europe’s leap into the quantum era. 

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.