Article 16 Use of EuroHPC supercomputers

Without prejudice to Article 17(9), the use of EuroHPC supercomputers shall be open to users from the public and private sectors. Except for the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers, their use shall be primarily for research and innovation purposes falling under public funding programmes, for public sector applications and for private innovation activities of SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups, where appropriate.

The AI-optimised supercomputers and EuroHPC supercomputers upgraded for AI capabilities shall be used primarily for the development, testing, evaluation and validation of large scale, general purpose AI training models and emerging AI applications, as well as for the further development of AI solutions in the Union requiring High Performance Computing and the execution of large-scale AI algorithms for the resolution of science problems.

The Governing Board shall define the general access conditions for using the EuroHPC supercomputers in accordance with Article 17 and may define specific access conditions for different types of users or applications. The security and quality of service shall be the same for all users within each user category, except for the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers, whose security and quality of service shall be compliant with industrial requirements, in accordance with Article 13(1).

The Governing Board shall define special access conditions for the AI-optimised supercomputers and the EuroHPC supercomputers upgraded for AI capabilities in accordance with Article 17, taking into account the specific needs of the AI startup ecosystem and the research and innovation ecosystem. Those shall include dedicated access to startups and small and medium-sized enterprises. Only proposals for developing trustworthy and ethical AI models, systems and applications, that are in line with Union values, shall be eligible for access.

Users residing, established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to Horizon 2020 shall be granted access to the Union’s share of access time of the supercomputers acquired by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1488.

Users residing, established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to the Digital Europe Programme or to Horizon Europe shall be granted the Union’s share of access time to EuroHPC supercomputers acquired after 2020.

In duly justified cases, taking into account the interests of the Union, the Governing Board shall decide to grant access time to EuroHPC supercomputers to entities residing, established or located in any third country and to international organisations.