Real stories, real impact: How FFplus helps SMEs to innovate

Fortissimo Plus (FFplus) supports European SMEs in exploring the potential of high-performance computing (HPC) to solve specific business challenges or to develop generative AI solutions for business innovation. The SMEs funded by FFplus carry out innovation studies or business experiments that generate success stories, demonstrating to the wider SME ecosystem that HPC is an enabler of innovation. Access to the supercomputing resources of EuroHPC JU provides the engine to realise new business potential for participating SMEs.

In 2025, FFplus funded 19 business experiments and 18 innovation studies, involving SMEs and other organisations across domains including Life Sciences, ICT, Finance, Gaming, Energy, Engineering and Administration. The business experiments involve 43 organisations, including 34 SMEs and 9 other organisations across 15 countries, while the innovation studies involve 36 organisations, including 20 SMEs and 16 other organisations across 14 countries.

FFplus is funded by EuroHPC JU and managed by a consortium of seven European partners dedicated to strengthening the ability of European SMEs to adopt transformative technologies such as HPC and generative AI. These actions are essential to accelerating business innovation and agility in the European Union.

To highlight the important work of FFplus, this blog shares insights into the initiative through testimonials from those working on and benefiting from the project.

Building Success with FFplus

Real Business Impact

FFplus provides an entry point and a supportive framework for start-ups and SMEs to gain experience and expertise in utilising HPC and AI technologies to accelerate their business development. By providing funding through open calls and access to EuroHPC resources, FFplus helps reduce costs and lower barriers to innovation for eligible European companies.

Visit the FFplus website for information or listen to more success stories on the FFplus YouTube channel.

Background

Launched in 2013, the Fortissimo project series has spent more than a decade helping European SMEs unlock the business potential of high-performance computing (HPC). Across all project editions (Fortissimo, Fortissimo 2, FF4EuroHPC and FFplus), 167 experiments have been carried out, resulting in 157 success stories. The projects have focused on lowering barriers for SMEs that have not previously used HPC, providing pathways to developing and optimising their processes and products. In doing so, these initiatives contribute directly to strengthening the reach, innovation and competitiveness of European companies and industry.

In addition to offering three open calls for business experiments, which focus on the uptake of HPC by SMEs to address specific business challenges, FFplus offers another type of call for innovation studies. These address the needs of SMEs and start-ups proficient in generative AI and HPC that require access to large to extreme-scale computing resources. Between 2024 and 2028, six open calls will be offered, creating an important entry point for European companies seeking to harness the potential of technologies such as HPC, artificial intelligence and generative AI.