The HPC EUROPEAN TASK FORCE (HET) consists of national delegates from European research funding agencies and replaces the HPCEUR project board. It will be established on 28th June 2006 and disbanded by the end of October 2006. It will report to the research funding agencies of its members. Its primary aim is to develop a policy framework for the provision of high performance computing within Europe in order to meet the needs of the European academic community, industry, and society. In order to achieve this aim it will:
- Identify the current European HPC landscape, both in academia and industry, in terms of a performance pyramid of tier 1 (national systems), tier 2 (systems for a particular organisation) and tier 3 (systems for a particular research project).
- Using the European Scientific Case developed by the HPCEUR project board, define the requirements for the future European HPC landscape within the timescale of FP7, in particular the creation of a tier 0 (European systems).
- Define a competitive process, open to all European countries, for building the future European HPC landscape.
- Define the evaluation process and criteria for selecting: a) the proposal for providing tier 0 of the performance pyramid; and b) proposals for providing other components of the landscape.
- Develop financial models for funding the future European HPC landscape, in particular tier 0 of the performance pyramid, which are compatible with the requirements of the landscape and constraints of the research funding agencies.
- Communicate the benefits of HPC to all the stakeholders in Europe, including the research funding agencies, academic community, industry and general public.
- Recommend to e-IRG a draft framework for the sustainable provision of a European HPC landscape in the long-term (10 to 15 years).
