Pillars of activity
Article 4
1. The Joint Undertaking shall implement the mission referred to in Article 3 according to the following pillars of activities: (a) administration pillar, covering the general activities for the operation and management of the Joint Undertaking; (b) infrastructure pillar, encompassing the activities for the acquisition, deployment, upgrading and operation of the secure, hyper-connected world-class supercomputing, quantum computing and data infrastructure, including the promotion of the uptake and systematic use of research and innovation results generated in the Union; (c) federation of supercomputing services pillar, covering all activities for providing Union-wide access to federated, secure supercomputing and data resources and services throughout Europe for the research and scientific community, industry, including SMEs, and the public sector, in particular in cooperation with PRACE and GÉANT; those activities shall include: (i) support to the interconnection of the High Performance Computing, quantum computing and data resources owned fully or partially by the Joint Undertaking or made available on a voluntary basis by the Participating States; (ii) support to the interconnection of the supercomputing, and quantum computing data infrastructures with the Union’s common European data spaces and federated, secure cloud and data infrastructures; (iii) support to the development, acquisition and operation of a platform for the seamless federation and secure service provisioning of supercomputing and quantum computing service and data infrastructure, establishing a one-stop shop access point for any supercomputing or data service managed by the Joint Undertaking, providing any user with a single point of entry; (d) technology pillar, addressing ambitious research and innovation activities for developing a world-class, competitive and innovative supercomputing ecosystem across Europe addressing hardware and software technologies, and their integration into computing systems, covering the whole scientific and industrial value chain, for contributing to the Union’s strategic autonomy; it shall also focus on energy-efficient High Performance Computing technologies, contributing to environmental sustainability; those activities shall address inter alia: (i) low-power micro-processing components, interconnection components, system architecture and related technologies such as novel algorithms, software codes, tools, and environments; (ii) emerging computing paradigms and their integration into leading supercomputing systems through a co-design approach; these technologies shall be linked with the development, acquisition and deployment of high-end supercomputers, including quantum computers, and infrastructures; (iii) technologies and systems for the interconnection and operation of classical supercomputing systems with other, often complementary computing technologies, such as quantum computing or other emerging computing technologies and ensure their effective operation; (iv) new algorithms and software technologies that offer substantial performance increases; (e) application pillar, addressing activities for achieving and maintaining European excellence in key computing and data applications and codes for science, industry, including SMEs, and the public sector; those activities shall address inter alia: (i) applications, including new algorithms and software developments, for public and private users that benefit from the exploitation of the resources and capabilities of high-end supercomputers and their convergence with advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, high performance data analytics, cloud technologies, etc. through the co-design, development and optimisation of High Performance Computing-enabled large-scale and emerging lead-market codes and applications; (ii) support, among others, to Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing in applications and large-scale High Performance Computing-enabled pilot demonstrators and test-beds for big data applications and advanced digital services in a wide range of scientific, public and industrial sectors; (f) widening usage and skills pillar, aiming at developing capabilities and skills that foster excellence in supercomputing, quantum computing, and data use, taking into account synergies with other programmes and instruments, in particular Digital Europe Programme, widening the scientific and industrial use of supercomputing resources and data applications and fostering the industrial access and use of supercomputing and data infrastructures for innovation adapted to industrial needs, as well as providing Europe with a knowledgeable leading scientific community and a skilled workforce for scientific leadership and digital transformation of industry and public administration, including the support and networking of national High Performance Computing Competence Centres and Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing; (g) international cooperation pillar, in line with the external policy objectives and international commitments of the Union, defining, implementing and participating in activities relevant to the promotion of international collaboration in supercomputing to solve global scientific and societal challenges, while promoting competitiveness of the European High Performance Computing supply and user ecosystem. 2. In addition to the activities referred to in paragraph 1, the Joint Undertaking may be entrusted with the implementation of additional tasks in the event of cumulative, complementary or combined funding between Union programmes in accordance with the relevant Commission work programme.