December 7, 2015 - PRACE Launches Third Call for Applications under SHAPE

SHAPE (SME HPC Adoption Programme in Europe) is a pan-European programme supported by PRACE. The Programme aims to raise awareness and provide European SMEs with the expertise necessary to take advantage of the innovation possibilities created by High-Performance Computing (HPC), thus increasing their competitiveness. The programme allows SMEs to benefit from the expertise and knowledge developed within the top-class PRACE Research Infrastructure.

Advances in simulation on HPC systems create new business opportunities. Today, the innovation capabilities of many businesses depend on HPC-supported prototyping, modelling and processing. However, SMEs often lack the knowledge and resources to fully take advantage of these possibilities.

SHAPE helps European SMEs overcome those barriers. It equips SMEs with knowledge on advanced design technologies in order to enable the development of new products and services, reduce time-to-market and cost of R&D or increase the service quality. It will foster technological transfer between academia (i.e. PRACE) and industry and facilitate the definition of a workable solution based on HPC and of an appropriate business model.

To date the SHAPE Pilot Call and 2nd Call have allowed 21 SMEs to use PRACE resources and expertise to develop their solutions, providing them with knowledge that will allow them to make an informed decision on the selected HPC solutions and plan future actions. Read more about the SHAPE Pilot Call and its results here: http://www.prace-ri.eu/shape/

The Third Call for Applications aims to work with a few selected SMEs and introduce HPC-based tools and techniques into their business, operational, or production environment. It is open to all European SMEs that have an interesting idea that can be implemented using HPC. The selected solutions should bring a potential tangible Return on Investment to their business. Following an open selection process based on business and technical criteria, the project work will involve the following:

• Defining an appropriate HPC model for the selected solution;
• Assessing the solution’s business and technical viability;
• Possibility of using PRACE’s resources in order to test the solution (through PRACE Preparatory Access in an open R&D model).

PRACE experts will work with the selected SMEs in order to develop their solutions, providing the participating SMEs with knowledge that will allow them to make an informed decision on the selected HPC solution. Consideration will be given to independent service providers to become involved with the implementation at a later stage.

Application: The Third Call for Applications to the SHAPE opens on 16 November 2015 with a closing date of 14 January 2016. Please apply and submit project proposals on-line at http://prace-ri.eu/shape-application-formThe Selection Committee will consist of representatives of the PRACE Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC), the PRACE Board of Directors (BoD) and the PRACE IP Project.

Successful applicants will have access to PRACE resources as of 7 March 2016.

For more information on this Programme or support to prepare the application please visit www.prace-ri.eu/shape or contact shape@prace-ri.eu.

About PRACE

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels. The PRACE Research Infrastructure provides a persistent world-class high performance computing service for scientists and researchers from academia and industry in Europe. The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 4 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement RI-312763and from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (2014-2020) under grant agreement 653838.

For more information contact Marjolein Oorsprong, Communications Officer
Telephone: +32 2 613 09 27
E-mail: communication[at]prace-ri.eu