The European Commission, the High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC), and the Slovenian government inaugurated the Vega supercomputer in Maribor on Tuesday 20 April. Acquired by the European Union for €17.2 million - from EU funds and Member States’ contributions - Vega is the first of eight supercomputers to be installed in the EU in 2021 (see EUROPE 12563/12).
“Supercomputing will open new doors for European SMEs to compete in tomorrow’s high-tech economy. Even more importantly, by supporting artificial intelligence to identify the molecules for breakthrough drug treatments, by tracking infections for Covid-19 and other diseases, European supercomputing can help save lives”, said Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who attended the ceremony with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša.
Launched in 2018 with a budget of €1.1 billion for the 2019-2020 period, the initiative will be able to count on an envelope of €8 billion for 2021-2033, following the request in September 2020 by the European Commission to adapt Regulation 2018/1488 establishing EuroHPC (see EUROPE 12563/12). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)