ISC 2026: Europe opens access to quantum computers, including the Czech VLQ at IT4Innovations

This year's ISC High Performance conference welcomed 4,000 participants from around the world. The programme featured technical presentations, workshops, an exhibition, and the traditional announcement of the world's most powerful (TOP500) and most energy-efficient (Green500) supercomputers.

Karolina, the supercomputer operated by IT4Innovations since 2021, ranked 250th in the latest TOP500 list. It also placed 96th in the Green500 ranking. LUMI, in which IT4Innovations is a consortium member, ranked 11th in the TOP500 list and 45th in the Green500 ranking.

Branislav Jansík, Director of Supercomputing Services at IT4Innovations, presented the VLQ quantum computer installed in Ostrava at the conference. The system was co-financed by EuroHPC JU. During the event, EuroHPC JU also announced the launch of a pilot call, which for the first time enables European researchers, companies and public institutions to apply for access to EuroHPC co-funded quantum computers. In addition to the Czech VLQ, the available systems include the German Euro-Q-Exa, the Polish Piast-Q, and the French Lucy. Successful applicants will be granted access within two weeks of the application deadline, with the first submission deadline set for 1 August 2026.

The Czech presence at the conference also included a live interview with Vít Vondrák, Director of IT4Innovations, on ČT24. During the broadcast, he commented on the presentation of the world’s most powerful supercomputer, LineShine, installed in China, whose performance has exceeded the two-exaflop-per-second threshold.

IT4Innovations was further represented at the conference through a range of technical contributions. Martin Golasowski from the Advanced Data Analysis and Simulations Lab presented in the Birds of Feather (BoF) session dedicated to the EuroHPC Federation Platform, which aims to unify access to European supercomputing and quantum systems.

The Training and Education Department of IT4Innovations also had a strong presence. Karina Pešatová co-organised two BoFs, Super(computing)heroes and HPC and You v6.0 – Student BoF on Enjoying a Career and Community in HPC, as well as the EuroHPC Virtual Training Academy (EVITA): HPC Training for Everyone community meeting. Lucie Rožnovská contributed to the organisation of the HPC and You v6.0 session and presented the Central European Chapter of the Women in HPC initiative during the Tech Talks programme. Dominika Regéciová delivered a presentation titled Securing AI at the Structural Level (Hybrid Quantum & Formal Language Models for Defense).

At the exhibition booth, the IT4Innovations team presented not only its computing infrastructure and international projects, but also its active involvement in the European network of AI Factories. IT4Innovations is a member of the LUMI AI Factory and coordinates the Czech AI Factory.

Visitors were also able to learn more about two European projects in which the centre is involved. Jean-Robert Bacou from Bull presented the EUPEX project, which aims to design and deploy a European modular pilot system integrating the full spectrum of European hardware and software technologies. The EUPEX Software Stack provides a European ecosystem for operating HPC and AI workloads with flexibility, performance, and efficiency, enabling the platform to offer the community a unique environment to evaluate European technologies and prepare key applications for future exascale supercomputing systems. Hans-Christian Hoppe from Forschungszentrum Jülich introduced the SEANERGYS project, in which IT4Innovations is also involved. The international team develops a next-generation integrated framework for holistic monitoring, AI-based analysis of monitoring data, and dynamic scheduling and resource management. SEANERGYS aims to reduce energy consumption while balancing the needs of both users and system operators.