Advanced computing project launched in Barcelona

Barcelona (CNA).- Barcelona has played host this week to the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE), a European project for the integration of supercomputers. The Commissioner for Universities and Research, Joan Majó, stressed the importance of this project which aims to assure European leadership in the supercomputation field. The Catalan and Spanish Governments will invest 100 million euros in 2012 in order to turn the Mare Nostrum computer into a key node of the PRACE.

Majó stated that this project represents a huge advance for Catalonia as it “contributes to the research capacity of the country”. The Commissioner for Research cited other important infrastructures for Catalonia, like the synchrotron radiation facility Alba, as an example of the consolidation of a genuine research cluster in Mediterranean Europe.

Moreover, the Secretary of State for Research, Felipe Pétriz, stated that thanks to the PRACE, “potential and adequate methodology” will allow users to increase the response capacity in the research field. Besides, he added that this project “will form a new European ecosystem of supercomputers able to compete against the United States and Asia, which will contribute to improving the European scientific and technologic capacities and will facilitate the creation of a new market for other types of technologies.”