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.
Henna Virkkunen of the European Commission summarised the main point of the summit: "United, we can build unique infrastructures to ensure our global leadership and sovereignty." The event aimed to unite supercomputing centres, academia, and industry to strengthen the European computing ecosystem.
New this year was the Quantum Insights block, which featured demonstrations of quantum chips designed for EuroHPC JU systems. Various technologies were presented - superconducting (Czech VLQ, German Euro-Q-Exa), ion traps (Polish PIAST-Q), photonic (French Lucy), annealers (Spanish MN5) and neutral atoms (Italian EuroQCS).
During the Demo Lab, IT4Innovations presented the importance of the Karolina supercomputer for science and industry. Visitors learned more about Floreon+ and LEXIS Platform 2, while IT4Innovations representatives were assisted by EUMaster4HPC students who acted as HPC ambassadors at the conference.
Ondřej Vysocký from IT4Innovations Infrastructure Research Lab was a speaker in the session "AI vs. Sustainability: Finding a balance?". He was joined on stage by Zuzanna Warso (Open Future), Marek Magryś (ACC Cyfronet AGH), Stéphane Requena (GENCI), and Julita Corbalan Gonzalez (BSC). In his presentation, "Do you operate an efficient data center? Ondřej addressed issues of data centre efficiency, the importance of monitoring resource usage, and subsequent optimisation through the analysis of operational data. He placed particular emphasis on the role of users in determining whether resources are being used efficiently and stressed the importance of their awareness of electricity consumption, CO2 emissions, and other resources. Users can benefit from expert support in optimisation through the EPICURE project or the POP Centre of Excellence, of which IT4Innovations is a part. His presentation is available here, and Ondřej Vysocký adds: “In the discussion, we agreed that AI will allow us to carry out many activities more efficiently and advance scientific research. At the same time, we must be aware of the energy consumption associated with the use of not only chatbots but also other forms of artificial intelligence, which we often use redundantly or completely unnecessarily.”
During the summit, the expansion of the AI Factories network to 13 centres was announced, which will connect AI innovation across Europe. IT4Innovations is part of the LUMI AI Factory consortium. Each of the 'factories' will serve as a comprehensive facility for start-ups, SMEs, and researchers – providing access to AI-optimised supercomputers, expert advice, training, and data support.
The Career Fair connected students and young professionals with more than 50 organisations, including IT4Innovations. Tomáš Kozubek, Radovan Pasek, Joao Barbosa, and Lubomír Říha presented career opportunities ranging from systems management to quantum computing.
On the final day of the summit, Pekka Lehtovouri from CSC Finland presented the EuroHPC Federation Platform, which will connect European supercomputers, quantum computers, and AI factories. IT4Innovations is part of the consortium delivering this platform, and the LEXIS Platform 2 and HEAppE software tools will be key components.
The sixth edition of the European Strategic Research Agenda (SRA6) was officially handed over to representatives of the European Commission and the EuroHPC JU during the summit. Ondřej Vysocký, Filip Staněk, Tomáš Kozubek, Marek Lampart, Martin Golasowski, Jakub Beránek and Tomáš Martinovič, experts from IT4Innovations, took part in its preparation and related white papers.
The POP3, SPACE, and MaX centers of excellence were presented in the poster session, as were the international projects EPICURE, EUMaster4HPC, EUPEX, and EuroCC 2, in which IT4Innovations is a partner.
Anders Dam Jensen said in his closing remarks: "We spend a lot of time, and there is a lot of sweat, tears, and money going into building the infrastructure we provide. And it is very cool to procure the largest machines in the world. But it is even cooler actually to see them being put to good use," he said, referring to three research results achieved thanks to EuroHPC JU systems (from agriculture to biochemistry and astrophysics).
Recordings of the plenary sessions and presentations from the parallel sessions are available on the EuroHPC Summit website: https://www.eurohpcsummit.eu/
