NEWS

On May 21–22, 2025, Brno hosted the international conference Research Data Day & EOSC National Tripartite Event, bringing together leading figures of European research, data science experts, representatives of research infrastructures, and science policy makers. The two-day programme—featuring lectures, panel discussions, expert workshops, and networking opportunities—attracted over 200 participants from 40 institutions across the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Finland, and other European countries, both in person and online.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) represent a significant advance in catalysis. With their unique properties, such as the maximize atomic utilisation, improved selectivity, and ease of catalyst separation, they promise to make chemical processes more efficient and sustainable. However, their practical application presents a significant challenge: stabilising individual atoms on a suitable support to ensure the material retains high catalytic activity under reaction conditions.

Quantum computing is a fascinating and powerful tool with the potential to transform computational capabilities across various scientific and industrial fields fundamentally. Unlike classical computers that operate with bits, quantum computers use
quantum bits, or qubits. These qubits have a unique property – they can exist in a superposition of the states 0 and 1, meaning they can represent more than one value at the same time. This allows quantum computers to perform either impossible or extremely time-consuming computations for classical computers.

The 40th anniversary edition of Europe’s leading supercomputing conference – ISC High Performance (ISC) – will take place from 10 to 13 June in Hamburg, Germany. As ever, ISC will be a global hub for knowledge exchange, innovation and collaboration – not only in high-performance computing (HPC), but also in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center has installed a new OptiTrack optical 3D tracking system. The technology will enable scientists to visualise complex scientific data more accurately and boost research within the REFRESH project.

Newsletter 3/2025

The second edition of the Superheroes 4 Science project concluded with a final project meeting held at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center in March. Coordinated by IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, the project brought together partners from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia to reflect on achievements and discuss future use of the educational materials developed throughout the initiative.

Ostrava, 28 April 2025 – The Czech BRM AERO company, in cooperation with Airmobis, has received a grant of CZK 5 million from the European FFplus initiative. They will use the funds to design a new type of aircraft, the development of which will be enhanced by the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center's supercomputers.

Michal Hrabánek, a student at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), uses a supercomputer to create architectural visualisations. These are a key part of architectural design - they provide an idea of what a building will look like and often shape its construction. To achieve a photorealistic look, computationally demanding methods such as ray tracing can be used.

Jakub Mareček has been working at the Czech Technical University in Prague since 2020. Within the Faculty of Electrical Engineering he is associated with the Artificial Intelligence Center, where he leads a research group focused on mathematical optimisation. He is a coordinator of the European project entitled Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence with Guarantees and the principal investigator of several other grants from the European Commission and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic.

Ostrava, 10 April 2025 – In the long term, Europe seeks to strengthen its technological sovereignty in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. One step is to develop a new generation of processors for supercomputers designed and developed exclusively in Europe, including an optimised software ecosystem for research and industrial applications. The Czech Republic is also involved in these activities, specifically Codasip and IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center.

Ostrava, 1 April 2025 – The ambitious ZEUS research project, which aims to increase the resilience of power grids in the context of decarbonisation, decentralisation, and sustainable socio-economic development, has been launched in Ostrava. The project is coordinated by VSB - Technical University of Ostrava (through IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center and ENET Centre) in close cooperation with the University of Ostrava and eight other major partners from various application domains.

Ostrava, 25 March 2025 ­– This year, the first Czech quantum computer will be installed in IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center in Ostrava. It has been named VLQ, and the first components of this unique machine have already been delivered. One of the most important is the cryostat – a device in which the chip is subsequently placed and must be able to cool the chip to a temperature of 10 millikelvins (-273.14 degrees Celsius ), i.e. similar to a temperature in space.

On 18–20 March, the EuroHPC Summit 2025 took place in Krakow, Poland, attracting more than 1,000 experts, industry partners and policy makers. The conference showcased the latest achievements of the European supercomputing ecosystem and addressed challenges in high performance computing, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.

The EuroHPC Summit, which will be attended by more than 1000 people this year, is a unique opportunity to showcase the latest achievements and capabilities of the European supercomputing ecosystem. It also opens the floor for discussion on current and future challenges, not only in the field of High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence, but also in Quantum Computing.

Newsletter 2/2025

Radim Špetlík and Jan Hlavsa from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), in collaboration with Petra Pojmanová and Jana Čechová from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (UCT), use the LUMI supercomputer to enhance the analysis of human scent using machine learning. They are now trying to identify distinct scent profiles, which could also be beneficial in other areas, such as forensic investigations.

A team of experts from IT4Innovations, NVIDIA, the University of Cologne, and the University of California has developed a new approach to rendering scientific visualisations that uses the ANARI API for parallel processing of large sci-vis data. This approach allows computations to be distributed across multiple devices, speeding up and simplifying the entire rendering process.

EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has announced access calls for 2025. Researchers from academia, research institutes, public authorities, and industry can apply for computational resources of supercompters co-funded by EuroHPC JU.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the AI Action Summit, the largest global gathering on artificial intelligence. The Summit, attended by world leaders, business representatives and research institutions, highlighted the need for European cooperation and competitiveness at a time when the US and China dominate the field of AI. A key theme was investment in research and technological development to enable the effective use of AI in areas such as healthcare, education, and industry.