On Friday 18th June 2021, the Minho Manifesto Declaration was discussed at the Minho University in Guimarães, Portugal. Its intention is to strengthen research linked to high-performance computing (HPC) and to link more closely the five supercomputing centres that newly boast petascale systems. IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center will also be part of the emerging European network.
The ceremony was preceded by a round table attended, among others, by Mariya Gabriel, the EU Commissioner for innovation and research. She stressed that closer cooperation between the scientific and HPC communities is central to making the European Union a leader in HPC and contributing to the digital and green transformation that awaits humanity in the coming decades.
The Declaration brought together five European countries, which have procured brand new supercomputers thanks to the European EuroHPC JU initiative. In addition to IT4Innovations, which will launch the most powerful Czech supercomputer Karolina in August, the document was mutually agreed by Portugal, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Luxembourg.
"We have committed ourselves to sharing knowledge, particularly in the use of scientific knowledge in areas such as energy, climate, sustainable cities, cyber security, biomedical sciences, and social sciences and humanities. Indeed, cooperation with other partners has already been underway. In May, we held talks with the Bulgarian supercomputing centre PetaSC-Bulgaria, to whom we transferred our know-how in infrastructure operation. It is not just about supercomputers as such but all the supporting technologies that are needed to operate supercomputers," says Branislav Jansík, the Supercomputing Services Director at IT4Innovations.