Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) establishes Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (‘Horizon Europe’). Parts of Horizon Europe may be implemented through European Partnerships, with private and/or public sector partners, in order to achieve the greatest possible impact of Union funding and the most effective contribution to the Union’s policy objectives.
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In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/695 support may be provided to Joint Undertakings established in the framework of Horizon Europe. Such partnerships should be implemented only where other parts of Horizon Europe, including other forms of European Partnerships, would not achieve its objectives or would not generate the necessary expected impacts, and if justified by a long-term perspective and high degree of integration. The conditions under which such partnerships are created are specified in that Regulation.
(3)
Regulation (EU) 2021/694 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) establishes the Digital Europe Programme. The Digital Europe Programme supports the implementation of projects of common interest which aim at the acquisition, deployment and operation of a world-class supercomputing, quantum and data infrastructure, at federation and interconnection, and at widening the use of supercomputing services and the development of key skills.
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Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) establishes the Connecting Europe Facility. The Connecting Europe Facility enables projects of common interest to be prepared and implemented within the framework of the trans-European networks policy in the sectors of transport, telecommunications and energy. In particular, the Connecting Europe Facility supports the implementation of those projects of common interest which aim at the development and construction of new infrastructures and services, or at the upgrading of existing infrastructures and services, in the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors. The Connecting Europe Facility contributes to supporting digital connectivity infrastructures of common interest bringing significant spillover societal benefits.
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The Communication from the Commission of 19 February 2020 entitled ‘A European Strategy for Data’ outlines Europe’s strategy for policy measures and investments to enable the data economy for the coming five years. It emphasises the creation of European public common data spaces that will boost growth and create value. Support for the creation of such common European data spaces and federated, secure cloud infrastructures would ensure that more data becomes available for use in the economy and society, while keeping companies and individuals who generate the data in control. High Performance Computing and quantum computing are essential components of the seamless provision of computing resources with different performance characteristics required to maximise the growth and exploitation of European public common data spaces and federated, secure cloud infrastructures for public, industrial and scientific applications.
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The Communication from the Commission of 19 February 2020 entitled ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’ presents Europe’s digital strategy and focuses on key objectives to ensure that digital solutions help Europe to pursue its own way towards a digital transformation that works for the benefit of people. Among the key actions it proposes is investing in building and deploying cutting-edge joint digital capacities, including in supercomputing and quantum technologies, and expanding Europe’s supercomputing capacity to develop innovative solutions for medicine, transport and the environment.
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The Communication from the Commission of 10 March 2020 entitled ‘A new Industrial Strategy for Europe’ reflects an ambitious industrial strategy for Europe to lead the twin transitions towards climate neutrality and digital leadership. The Communication stresses the support, among others, to the development of key enabling technologies that are strategically important for Europe’s industrial future, including High Performance Computing and quantum technologies.
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The Communication from the Commission of 27 May 2020 entitled ‘Europe’s moment: Repair and Prepare for the Next Generation’ identified a number of strategic digital capacities and capabilities that included High Performance Computers and quantum technologies as a priority in the Recovery and Resilience Facility, InvestEU and the Strategic Investment Facility.
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Europe’s leading role in the data economy, its scientific excellence, and its industrial strength increasingly depend on its ability to develop key High Performance Computing technologies, to provide access to world-class supercomputing and data infrastructures, and to maintain its present leadership in High Performance Computing applications. High Performance Computing is a mainstream technology for the digital transformation of the European economy, enabling many traditional industrial sectors to innovate with higher value products and services. In combination with other advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud technologies, High Performance Computing is paving the way towards innovative societal and industrial applications in critical areas for Europe such as personalised medicine, weather forecast and climate change, smart and green development and transport, new materials for clean energy, drug design and virtual testing, sustainable agriculture, or engineering and manufacturing.
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High Performance Computing is a strategic resource for policy making, powering applications that provide the means to understand and design efficient solutions to address many complex global challenges and for crisis management. High Performance Computing contributes to key policies such as the European Green Deal with models and tools for transforming the increasing number of complex environmental challenges into opportunities for social innovation and economic growth. An example is the Destination Earth initiative announced in the Communications from the Commission of 11 December 2019 entitled ‘The European Green Deal’, and of 19 February 2020 entitled ‘A European strategy for data’ and ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’.
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Global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the importance of investing in High Performance Computing and health-related modelling platforms and tools, as they are playing a key role in the fight against the pandemic, often in combination with other digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. High Performance Computing is being used to accelerate the identification and production of treatments, including vaccines, to predict the virus’ spread, to help plan the distribution of medical supplies and resources, and to simulate post-epidemic exit measures in order to evaluate different scenarios. High Performance Computing modelling platforms and tools are critical tools for the current and future pandemics, and they will play a key role in health and personalised medicine.
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Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 (6) established the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (‘EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’) with a mission to develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the Union an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure and to develop and support a highly competitive and innovative High Performance Computing ecosystem.
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In light of developments in High Performance Computing, a revision of Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 to ensure the continuation of the initiative is necessary in order to define a new mission and objectives for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, taking into consideration the analysis of the key socioeconomic and technological drivers affecting the future evolution of High Performance Computing and data infrastructures, technologies and applications in the Union and worldwide, and the lessons learnt from the current activities of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. The revision would also allow for the alignment of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s rules with the new legal framework, in particular Regulation (EU) 2021/695, as well as Regulations (EU) 2021/694 and (EU) 2021/1153.
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In order to equip the Union with the computing performance needed to maintain its research and industrial capacities at a leading edge, Member States’ investment in High Performance Computing and quantum computing should be coordinated and the industrial and market take-up of High Performance Computing and quantum computing technologies be reinforced both in the public and private sectors. The Union should increase its effectiveness in turning the technology developments into demand-oriented and application-driven European High Performance Computing and quantum computing systems of the highest quality, establishing an effective link between technology supply, co-design with users, and a joint procurement of world-class systems, and creating a world-class ecosystem in High Performance Computing and quantum computing technologies and applications across Europe. At the same time, the Union should provide an opportunity for its supply industry to leverage on such investments, leading to their uptake in large-scale and emerging application fields such as personalised medicine, climate change, connected and automated driving or other lead markets that are underpinned by artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, edge computing or more broadly by the digitalisation of the European industry.
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In order for the Union and its Member States to achieve leadership in key digital technologies such as High Performance Computing and quantum computing, they should invest in next generation low-power and energy efficient supercomputing technologies, innovative software and advanced supercomputing systems for exascale and post-exascale computing and quantum computing, and for innovative supercomputing and data applications. This should allow the European supply industry to thrive in a wide range of key technology and application areas that reach beyond High Performance Computing and quantum computing and, in the long run, feed broader ICT markets with such technologies. It would also support the High Performance Computing and quantum computing science and user industry to undergo a digital transformation and boost its innovation potential.
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Pursuing a common strategic Union vision in High Performance Computing and quantum computing is essential for realising the ambition of the Union and of its Member States to ensure a leading role in the digital economy. The objective would be to establish in Europe a world-leading hyper-connected, federated and secure High Performance Computing and quantum computing service and data infrastructure ecosystem, and to be in a position to produce innovative and competitive High Performance Computing and quantum computing systems based on a supply chain that is more resilient and will ensure the availability of components, technologies and knowledge, limiting the risk of disruptions.
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A Joint Undertaking represents the best instrument capable of implementing the strategic EU vision in High Performance Computing and quantum computing, thus ensuring that the Union enjoys world-class supercomputing, quantum computing and data capabilities according to its economic potential, matching the needs of European users. The Joint Undertaking is the best instrument to overcome the present limitations, while offering the highest economic, societal, and environmental impact and best safeguarding the Union’s interests in High Performance Computing and quantum computing. It can pool resources from the Union, Member States and third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility and the private sector. It can implement a procurement framework and operate world-class High Performance Computing and quantum computing systems. It can launch research and innovation programmes for developing European technologies and their subsequent integration in world-class supercomputing systems.
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The Joint Undertaking will be part of the Institutionalised Partnerships portfolio under Horizon Europe which should strive to strengthen Union’s scientific capacities to deal with emerging threats and future challenges in a reinforced European Research Area, secure sustainability-driven Union’s value chains and Union’s strategic autonomy, and enhance the uptake of innovative solutions addressing climate, environmental, health and other global societal challenges in line with Union strategic priorities, including to reach climate neutrality in the Union by 2050.
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The Joint Undertaking should be financed by the Union programmes under the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027 (the ‘MFF 2021-2027’). It should be established in 2021 and operate until 31 December 2033 to equip the Union with a world-class federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing infrastructure, and to develop the necessary technologies, applications and skills for reaching exascale capabilities around 2022-2024, and post exascale around 2025 – 2027, while promoting a world-class European High Performance Computing and quantum computing innovation ecosystem. In accordance with Article 10(2)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, Joint Undertakings are to have a clear life cycle approach. In order to adequately protect the financial interests of the Union, the Joint Undertaking should be set up for a period ending 31 December 2033 to allow it to exercise its responsibilities with regard to grant implementation until the last indirect actions launched have been completed and with regard to finalising the activities related to the operation of the EuroHPC supercomputers.
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The public-private partnership in the form of the Joint Undertaking should combine the financial and technical means that are essential to master the complexity of the ever escalating pace of innovation in this area. Therefore, the members of the Joint Undertaking should be the Union, Member States and third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility agreeing on a joint European initiative in High Performance Computing and quantum computing, and associations representing their constituent entities and other organisations with an explicit and active engagement to produce research and innovation results, to develop and deploy high performance computing or quantum computing capabilities, or contributing to address the skills gap and keep the know-how in the field of High Performance Computing and quantum computing in Europe. The Joint Undertaking should be open to new members.
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In accordance with Annex III to Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the financial contributions from members other than the Union should be at least equal to 50 % and should be able to reach up to 75 % of the aggregated Joint Undertaking budgetary commitments. Conversely, the Union contribution, including any additional funds from third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility, should not exceed 50 % of the aggregated Joint Undertaking budgetary commitments.
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The Union contribution should cover the administrative costs of the Joint Undertaking.
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In accordance with point (c) of Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the Joint Undertaking is to implement a central management of all financial contributions through a coordinated approach. Accordingly, each Participating State should conclude one or more administrative agreements with the Joint Undertaking laying down the coordination mechanism for the payment of and reporting on contributions to applicants established in that Participating State. In order to ensure coherence with their national strategic priorities, Participating States should be provided with a right of veto over the use of their national financial contributions for applicants established in those Participating States. In order to minimise the administrative burden for beneficiaries, achieve simplification and ensure a more efficient implementation, each Participating State should strive to synchronise its payment schedule, reporting and audits with those of the Joint Undertaking and to converge its cost eligibility with Horizon Europe rules. Beneficiaries established in Participating States that entrusted the payment activities to the Joint Undertaking should sign a single grant agreement with the Joint Undertaking following Horizon Europe rules.
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With a view to regaining a leading position in High Performance Computing technologies, and developing a full High Performance Computing and quantum computing ecosystem for the Union, in 2014, the industrial and research stakeholders in the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing (ETP4HPC) Association established a contractual public private partnership with the Union. Its mission is to build a European world-class High Performance Computing technology value chain that would be globally competitive, fostering synergies between the three main components of the High Performance Computing ecosystem, namely technology development, applications and supercomputing infrastructure. Considering its expertise, and its role in bringing together the relevant private stakeholders in High Performance Computing, the ETP4HPC should be eligible for membership in the Joint Undertaking.
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With a view to strengthening the data value chain, enhancing community building around data and setting the grounds for a thriving data-driven economy in the Union, in 2014, the industrial and research stakeholders in the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) established a contractual public private partnership with the Union. In 2020 BDVA changed its name to Data, AI and Robotics (DAIRO). Considering its expertise and its role in bringing together the relevant private stakeholders of big data, DAIRO should be eligible for membership in the Joint Undertaking.
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The private associations ETP4HPC and DAIRO have expressed, in writing, their willingness to contribute to the Joint Undertaking’s multiannual strategic programme and bring their expertise into the realisation of the objectives of the Joint Undertaking. It is appropriate that those private associations accept the Statutes set out in the Annex to this Regulation by means of a letter of endorsement.
(27)
The Joint Undertaking should address clearly defined topics that would enable academia and European industries at large to design, develop and use the most innovative technologies in High Performance Computing and quantum computing, and to establish an integrated and federated, secure networked infrastructure across the Union with world-class High Performance Computing and quantum computing capability, high-speed connectivity and leading-edge applications and data and software services for its scientists and for other lead users from industry, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the public sector. The Joint Undertaking should aim at the development and use of top class technologies and infrastructures, addressing the demanding requirements of European scientific, industrial and public sector users.
(28)
The mission of the Joint Undertaking should be structured in one administrative pillar and six technical pillars addressing respectively the infrastructure activities, the activities federating the supercomputing services, the technology-related activities, the supercomputing applications related activities, the activities to widen the usage and skills, and the international cooperation activities. The Digital Europe Programme should be used to fund the infrastructure pillar, part of the federation of supercomputing services pillar and the widening usage and skills pillar. The Connecting Europe Facility should be used to fund the remaining activities of the federation of supercomputing services pillar, i.e. the interconnection of the High Performance Computing, quantum computing and data resources, as well as the interconnection with the Union’s common European data spaces and secure cloud infrastructures. Horizon Europe should be used to fund the technology pillar, the application pillar and the international cooperation pillar.
(29)
The Joint Undertaking should be able to cooperate with the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) for providing and managing access to a federated and interconnected supercomputing and data infrastructure and its services, as well as for training facilities and skills development opportunities. It should also be able to cooperate with the GÉANT network for the connectivity between the supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking, as well as with other European supercomputing and data infrastructures.
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The Joint Undertaking should contribute to reducing the specific skills gap across the Union by engaging in awareness raising measures and assisting in the building of new knowledge and human capital. This includes the design and support of specific educational and training activities in close cooperation with the relevant public and private actors.
(31)
In line with the external policy objectives and international commitments of the Union, the Joint Undertaking should facilitate cooperation between the Union and international actors by defining a cooperation strategy, including identifying and promoting areas for cooperation in research and development and skills development and implementing actions where there is a mutual benefit, as well as ensuring an access policy of respective High Performance Computing and quantum computing capabilities and applications mainly based on reciprocity.
(32)
The Joint Undertaking should aim at promoting the exploitation of any resulting High Performance Computing technologies in the Union. It should also aim at safeguarding the investments in the supercomputers it acquires. In doing so, it should take appropriate measures to ensure the security of the supply chain of acquired technologies that should cover the whole lifetime of these supercomputers.
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The Joint Undertaking should lay the ground for a longer-term vision and build the first hybrid High Performance Computing infrastructure in Europe, integrating classical computing architectures with quantum computing devices. Structured and coordinated financial support at European level is necessary to help research teams and European industries produce world-class results to ensure the fast and broad industrial exploitation of European research and technology across the Union, generating important spillovers for society, to share risk-taking and joining of forces by aligning strategies and investments towards a common European interest.
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In order to achieve its objectives to design, develop and use the most innovative technologies in High Performance Computing and quantum computing, the Joint Undertaking should provide financial support in particular in the form of grants and procurement following open and competitive calls for proposals and calls for tenders based on annual work programmes. Such financial support should be targeted in particular at proven market failures that prevent the development of the programme concerned, should not crowd out private investments and should have an incentive effect in that it changes the behaviour of the recipient.
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In order to achieve its objectives to increase the innovation potential of industry, and in particular of SMEs, to contribute to reducing the specific skills gap, to support the increase of knowledge and human capital and to upraise High Performance Computing and quantum computing capabilities, the Joint Undertaking should support the creation, and in particular the networking and coordination, of national High Performance Computing Competence Centres across Participating States. Those competence centres should provide High Performance Computing and quantum computing services to industry, academia and public administrations on their demand. They should primarily promote and enable access to the High Performance Computing innovation ecosystem, facilitate access to the supercomputers and quantum computers, address the significant shortages in skilled technical experts by undertaking awareness raising, training and outreach activities, and embark on networking activities with stakeholders and other national High Performance Computing Competence Centres to foster wider innovations, for example by exchanging and promoting best practice use cases or application experiences, by sharing their training facilities and experiences, by facilitating the co-development and exchange of parallel codes, or by supporting the sharing of innovative applications and tools for public and private users, in particular SMEs.
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The Joint Undertaking should provide a demand-oriented and user-driven framework and enable a co-design approach for the acquisition of an integrated, world-class federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing and quantum computing service and data infrastructure in the Union, in order to equip users with the strategic computation resource they need to develop new, innovative solutions and to solve societal, environmental, economic and security challenges. For that purpose, the Joint Undertaking should contribute to the acquisition of world-class supercomputers. The supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking, including quantum computers, should be installed in a Participating State that is a Member State.
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For a cost effective implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s mission to develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the Union a world-leading supercomputing ecosystem, the Joint Undertaking should seize the opportunity to upgrade the supercomputers it owns, where appropriate. Thus, the upgrades should lead to an extension of the supercomputers’ lifetime, increase the operational performance, and provide new functionalities to address the evolution of user needs. For the purpose of upgrading its supercomputers, the Joint Undertaking should be able to launch a call for expressions of interest as part of the infrastructure pillar. The calls for expression of interest should define the specific eligibility conditions that should apply to a hosting entity which is already hosting a EuroHPC supercomputer.
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The Joint Undertaking should hyper-connect all the supercomputers and data infrastructures it owns or co-owns with state-of-the-art networking technologies, making them widely accessible across the Union, and should interconnect and federate its supercomputing and quantum computing data infrastructure, as well as national, regional and other computing infrastructures with a common platform. The Joint Undertaking should also ensure the interconnection of the federated, secure supercomputing, and quantum computing service and data infrastructures with the common European data spaces, including the European Open Science Cloud, and federated, secure cloud infrastructures announced in the Communication from the Commission of 19 February 2020 entitled ‘A European Strategy for Data’, for seamless service provisioning to a wide range of public and private users across Europe.
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Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme should, respectively, contribute to the closing of the research and innovation divide within the Union and to deploying wide-range supercomputing capabilities by promoting synergies with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund+ (ESF+), the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Therefore, the Joint Undertaking should seek to develop close interactions with those funds which can specifically help to strengthen local, regional and national research and innovation capabilities.
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The Joint Undertaking should provide a favourable framework for Participating States that are Member States to use financial contributions under the programmes co-financed by ERDF, ESF+, EMFAF and EAFRD for the acquisition of High Performance Computing and quantum computing and data infrastructures and their interconnection. The use of those financial contributions in the Joint Undertaking activities is essential for developing in the Union an integrated, federated, secure and hyper-connected world-class High Performance Computing, quantum computing service and data infrastructure, since the benefits for such infrastructure extend well beyond the users of the Member States. If Member States decide to use those financial contributions for the activities of the Joint Undertaking, those contributions should be considered as national contributions of the Participating States that are Member States to the budget of the Joint Undertaking, provided that Article 106 and other applicable provisions of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) and the fund-specific regulations are complied with.
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The Joint Undertaking can facilitate the use of RRF funds by Participating States that are Member States. The RRF funds can complement the actions funded by the Joint Undertaking, provided that support under the RRF is additional to the support provided by the Union funds of the Joint Undertaking and that it does not cover the same cost. The use of RRF should not be accounted as national contribution to the budget of the Joint Undertaking, particularly in regard to High Performance Computing and quantum computing service and data infrastructures, as well as on technology, applications and skills development projects.
(42)
The Union’s contribution from the Digital Europe Programme funds should partly cover the acquisition costs of high-end supercomputers, quantum computers, industrial-grade supercomputers and mid-range supercomputers to align with the Joint Undertaking’s objective to contribute to the pooling of resources for equipping the Union with top-class supercomputers and quantum computers. The complementary costs of these supercomputers and quantum computers should be covered by the Participating States, the Private Members or consortia of private partners. The share of the Union’s access time to these supercomputers or quantum computers should be directly proportional to the financial contribution of the Union made for the acquisition of these supercomputers and quantum computers and should not exceed 50 % of the total access time of these supercomputers or quantum computers.
(43)
The Joint Undertaking should be the owner of the high-end supercomputers and quantum computers it has acquired. The operation of each high-end supercomputer or quantum computer should be entrusted to a hosting entity. The hosting entity should be able to represent a single Participating State that is a Member State or a hosting consortium of Participating States. The hosting entity should be able to provide an accurate estimate and to verify the operating costs of the supercomputer, by ensuring, for example, the functional separation, and to the extent possible, the physical separation of the Joint Undertaking’s high-end supercomputers or quantum computers and any national or regional computing systems it operates. The hosting entity should be selected by the Governing Board of the Joint Undertaking (the ‘Governing Board’) following a call for expression of interest evaluated by independent experts. Once a hosting entity is selected, the Participating State where the hosting entity is established or the hosting consortium should be able to decide to call for other Participating States to join and contribute to the funding of the high-end supercomputer or quantum computer to be installed in the selected hosting entity. If additional Participating States join the selected hosting consortium, this should be without prejudice to the Union’s access time to the supercomputers. The contributions of the Participating States in a hosting consortium to the supercomputer or quantum computer should be translated into shares of access time to that supercomputer or quantum computer. The Participating States should agree among themselves the distribution of their share of access time to the supercomputer or the quantum computer.
(44)
The Joint Undertaking should remain the owner of supercomputers or quantum computers it acquires until they are depreciated. The Joint Undertaking should be able to transfer this ownership to the hosting entity for decommissioning, disposal or any other use. When the ownership is transferred to the hosting entity or when the Joint Undertaking is being wound up, the hosting entity should reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual value of the supercomputer or the quantum computer.
(45)
The Joint Undertaking should jointly with Participating States acquire the mid-range supercomputers. The operation of each mid-range supercomputer should be entrusted to a hosting entity. The hosting entity should be able to represent a single Participating State that is a Member State or a hosting consortium of Participating States. The Joint Undertaking should own the part that corresponds to the Union’s share of the financial contribution to the acquisition costs from Digital Europe Programme funds. The hosting entity should be selected by the Governing Board following a call for expression of interest evaluated by independent experts. The share of the Union’s access time to each mid-range supercomputer should be directly proportional to the financial contribution of the Union from Digital Europe Programme funds to the acquisition costs of that mid-range supercomputer. The Joint Undertaking should be able to transfer its ownership to the hosting entity at the earliest five years after the successful acceptance test by the Joint Undertaking or when it is being wound up. The hosting entity should reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual value of the supercomputer.
(46)
To promote an equitable and balanced distribution across the Union of EuroHPC supercomputers and the emergence of a federated infrastructure ecosystem approach, the calls for expression of interest of a EuroHPC supercomputer should define the eligibility conditions that should apply to a Participating State which is already hosting a EuroHPC supercomputer.
(47)
The Joint Undertaking should be able to acquire together with a consortium of private partners industrial-grade supercomputers. The operation of each such supercomputer should be entrusted to an existing hosting entity. The hosting entity should be able to associate itself with the consortium of private partners for the acquisition and operation of such a supercomputer. The Joint Undertaking should own the part that corresponds to the Union’s share of financial contribution to the acquisition costs from the Digital Europe Programme funds. The hosting entity and its associated consortium of private partners should be selected by the Governing Board following a call for expression of interest evaluated by independent experts. The share of the Union’s access time to such supercomputer should be directly proportional to the financial contribution of the Union from the Digital Europe Programme funds to the acquisition costs of that industrial-grade supercomputer. The Joint Undertaking should be able to reach an agreement with the consortium of private partners to sell such a supercomputer to another entity or decommission it. Alternatively, the Joint Undertaking should be able to transfer the ownership of such a supercomputer to the consortium of private partners. In that case or when the Joint Undertaking is being wound-up, the consortium of private partners should reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual value of the Union’s share of the supercomputer. In the case that the Joint Undertaking and the consortium of private partners decide to proceed to the decommissioning of the supercomputer after the full depreciation of its operation, such costs should be covered by the consortium of private partners.
(48)
For industrial-grade supercomputers the Joint Undertaking should take into account the specific needs of industrial users, for example access procedures, quality and type of services, protection of data, protection of industrial innovation, and intellectual property, usability, trust, and other confidentiality and security requirements.
(49)
The design and operation of the supercomputers supported by the Joint Undertaking should take into consideration energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, using for example low-power technology, dynamic power-saving and re-use techniques like advanced cooling and heat recycling.
(50)
The use of the supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking should focus on civilian applications for public and private users residing, established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to the Digital Europe Programme or to Horizon Europe, including applications in cybersecurity that may be of dual use. Users should be granted the Union’s share of access time according to access policy rules defined by the Governing Board. The use of these supercomputers should also respect international agreements concluded by the Union.
(51)
User allocation of access time to the supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking should be free of charge for public users. It should also be free of charge for private users for their applications related to research and innovation activities funded by Horizon Europe or the Digital Europe Programme, as well as for private innovation activities of SMEs, where appropriate. Such allocation of access time should primarily be based on open calls for expression of interest launched by the Joint Undertaking and evaluated by independent experts. With the exception of SME users undertaking private innovation activities, all users benefiting from free-of-charge access time to the supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking should adopt an open science approach and disseminate knowledge gained through that access, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/695. User allocation of access time for economic activities other than private innovation activities of SMEs, which face particular market failures, should be granted on a pay-per-use basis, based on market prices. Allocation of access time for such economic activities should be allowed but limited and the level of the fee to be paid should be established by the Governing Board. The access rights should be allocated in a transparent manner. The Governing Board should define specific rules to grant access time free of charge, where appropriate, and without a call for expression of interest to initiatives that are considered strategic for the Union. Representative examples of strategic initiatives of the Union include: Destination Earth, the Human Brain Project Flagship, the ‘1+ Million Genomes’ initiative, the common European data spaces operating in domains of public interest, and in particular the health data space, the Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing, national High Performance Computing Competence Centres and the Digital Innovation Hubs.
Upon the Union’s request, the Joint Undertaking should grant direct access time on a temporary or permanent basis to strategic initiatives and existing or future application platforms that it considers essential for providing health-related or other crucial emergency support services for the public good, to emergency and crisis management situations or to cases that the Union considers essential for its security and defence. The Joint Undertaking should be allowed to carry out some limited economic activities for commercial purposes. Access should be granted to users residing, established or located in a Member State or a third country associated to the Digital Europe Programme or to Horizon Europe. The access rights should be equitable to any user and allocated in a transparent manner. The Governing Board should define and monitor the access rights to the Union’s share of access time for each supercomputer.
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Access to the Union’s share of access time of the precursors to exascale and petascale supercomputers acquired by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking established under Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 should continue to be granted to users established in the Union or a third country associated to Horizon 2020.
(53)
The supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking should be operated and used in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8) and Directives 2002/58/EC (9) and (EU) 2016/943 (10) of the European Parliament and of the Council.
(54)
Governance of the Joint Undertaking should be assured by two bodies: a Governing Board, and an Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board. The Governing Board should be composed of representatives of the Union and of Participating States. The Governing Board should be responsible for strategic policy-making and funding decisions related to the activities of the Joint Undertaking, including all the public procurement activities. The Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board should include representatives of academia and industry as users and technology suppliers. It should provide independent advice to the Governing Board on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, on the acquisition and operation of the supercomputers owned by the Joint Undertaking, the capability building and widening activities programme and the federation, connectivity and international cooperation activities programme.
(55)
For the general administrative tasks of the Joint Undertaking, the voting rights of the Participating States should be distributed equally among them. For the tasks corresponding to the setting up of the part of the work programme related to the acquisition of the supercomputers and quantum computers, the selection of the hosting entity, the federation and connectivity activities and the research and innovation activities of the Joint Undertaking, the voting rights of the Participating States that are Member States should be based on the principle of qualified majority. The Participating States that are third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility should also hold voting rights for the respective activities that are supported with budgetary envelopes from each of those programmes. For the tasks corresponding to the acquisition and operation of the supercomputers and quantum computers, only those Participating States and the Union that contribute resources to those tasks should have voting rights.
(56)
The Union’s financial contribution should be managed in accordance with the principle of sound financial management and with the relevant rules on indirect management set out in Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11). The rules applicable for the Joint Undertaking to enter into public procurement procedures should be set out in its financial rules.
(57)
To foster an innovative and competitive European High Performance Computing and quantum computing ecosystem of recognised excellence across Europe, the Joint Undertaking should make appropriate use of the procurement and grant instruments, including joint procurement, pre-commercial procurement and public procurement of innovative solutions. This aims at creating links between technologies primarily developed in the Union, co-design with users and the acquisition of first-of-a-kind world-class supercomputing and quantum computing systems.
(58)
In assessing the overall impact of the Joint Undertaking, investments in indirect actions from the Private Members should be taken into account as in-kind contributions consisting of the eligible costs incurred by them in implementing actions, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking, the Participating States or any other Union contribution to those costs. In assessing the overall impact of the Joint Undertaking, investments in other actions from the Private Members should be taken into account as in-kind contributions consisting of the eligible costs incurred by them in implementing the actions, less the contributions by the Joint Undertaking, the Participating States or any other Union contribution to those costs.
(59)
In order to maintain a level playing field for all undertakings active in the internal market, funding from the Union programmes should be consistent with State aid principles so as to ensure the effectiveness of public spending and prevent market distortions such as crowding out of private funding, the creation of ineffective market structures, the preservation of inefficient firms or the creation of a subsidies-reliant culture.
(60)
Participation in indirect actions funded by the Joint Undertaking should comply with Regulation (EU) 2021/695. The Joint Undertaking should, moreover, ensure the consistent application of those rules based on relevant measures adopted by the Commission. In order to ensure appropriate co-financing of indirect actions by the Participating States, in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the Participating States should contribute an amount at least equal to the reimbursement provided by the Joint Undertaking for the eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries in implementing the actions. To that effect, the maximum funding rates set out in the annual work programme of the Joint Undertaking should be fixed by the Governing Board in accordance with Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695.
(61)
In order to ensure the right balance of stakeholders’ participation in the actions funded by the Joint Undertaking, a derogation from Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 is necessary to allow a differentiation of reimbursement rates depending on the type of participant, namely SMEs, and the type of action, to be applied invariably across beneficiaries from all Participating States. For activities funded under the Digital Europe Programme, the Joint Undertaking should allow reimbursement rates depending on the type of participant, namely SMEs, and the type of action, to be applied invariably across beneficiaries from all Participating States.
(62)
Provision of financial support to activities from the Digital Europe Programme should comply with Regulation (EU) 2021/694. In particular, in relation to classified information, actions funded under the Digital Europe Programme should comply with Article 12(1) of that Regulation.
(63)
Provision of financial support to activities from the Connecting Europe Facility should comply with Regulation (EU) 2021/1153.
(64)
Beneficiaries from third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme or the Connecting Europe Facility that are Participating States should be eligible for participation in actions only where a Participating State is a third country associated to one or more programmes related to that action.
(65)
The financial interests of the Union and of the other members of the Joint Undertaking should be protected by proportionate measures throughout the expenditure cycle, including the prevention, detection and investigation of irregularities, the recovery of lost, wrongly paid or incorrectly used funds and, where appropriate, the application of administrative and financial penalties in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.
(66)
The Joint Undertaking should operate in an open and transparent way providing all relevant information in a timely manner as well as promoting its activities, including information and dissemination activities, to the wider public. The rules of procedure of the bodies of the Joint Undertaking should be made publicly available.
(67)
For the purpose of simplification, the administrative burden should be reduced for all parties. Double audits and disproportionate amounts of documentation and reporting should be avoided.
(68)
The Commission’s internal auditor should exercise the same powers over the Joint Undertaking as those exercised in respect of the Commission.
(69)
The Commission, the Joint Undertaking, the Court of Auditors and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) should have access to all necessary information and the premises to conduct audits and investigations on the grants, contracts and agreements signed by the Joint Undertaking.
(70)
All calls for proposals and all calls for tenders under this Regulation should take into account the duration of Horizon Europe, of the Digital Europe Programme and of the Connecting Europe Facility, as appropriate, except in duly justified cases. Procurement procedures for the acquisition of the supercomputers and quantum computers of the Joint Undertaking should be in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Digital Europe Programme. In duly justified cases related to availability of remaining budget stemming from the MFF 2021-2027, the Joint Undertaking should be able to launch calls for proposals or calls for tenders by 31 December 2028.
(71)
An interim and a final evaluation of the Joint Undertaking should be conducted by the Commission with the assistance of independent experts. In a spirit of transparency, the relevant independent experts’ report should be made publicly available, in compliance with the applicable rules.
(72)
Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely the strengthening of research and innovation capabilities, the development of supercomputing capability building and widening activities, the federation, connectivity and international cooperation and the acquisition of world-class supercomputers, and access to High Performance Computing, quantum computing service and data infrastructure across the Union by means of a Joint Undertaking, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of avoiding unnecessary duplication, retaining critical mass and ensuring that public financing is used in an optimal way, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,
