Portugal is preparing a National Strategy for Advanced Computing

The National Strategy for Advanced Computing was started in past May. INCoDe.2030 is preparing Advanced Computing Portugal 2030 in articulation with the European High-Perfomance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). The strategy is aligned with the European agenda on computing, in which the European Comission has invested a billion euros until 2020. 

The aim is to define milestones, goals and actions, bringing together the Industry, the Higher Education system and Research Units, a joint effort that will put Portugal on the frontrunners of Advanced Computing in Europe. 

High Performance Computing has become an indispensable resource in the digital age, improving the ability of researchers, industry, SMEs and government to process and analyse large amounts of data. Along with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and the Internet of Things (IoT), access to high performance computing services is therefore a mission-critical enabling capability for innovation and competitiveness.

In this context, Portugal is part of the pioneer group of six countries that signed EuroHPC Declaration, in March 2017, on a partnership for the development of European resources for advanced computing. According to a EC statement, released in January 2018, "the EU's contribution in EuroHPC will be around EUR 486 million under the current Multiannual Financial Framework, matched by a similar amount from Member States and associated countries. Overall, around EUR 1 billion of public funding would be invested by 2020, and private members of the initiative would also add in kind contributions."

The preparation of this National Strategy builds up on the Portuguese' effort to take the INCoDe.2030 action line 5 further, dedicated to research. 

Quanta Lab - Laboratório de Ciência, Tecnologia e Materiais Quânticos, that was launched in July 2016, at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, in Braga, is one of these pioneer projects, which was followed, in November 2017, by the founding of Minho Advanced Computing Centre, in a partnership with the University of Texas in Austin. Together with Spain, in April 2019, Portugal submitted a proposal for the installation and management of supercomputing infrastructures, in the scope of the Iberian Advanced Computing Network (RICA), established in November 2018.