Business Experiment Partners Exchange Insights on HPC Adoption and Impact

A joint meeting of all Business Experiment sub-project partners was recently organised to foster collaboration, exchange knowledge, and share practical insights from ongoing work. The Business Experiments, which began on 1 February, will run for 15 months and bring together SMEs exploring the use of High-Performance Computing (HPC) for business innovation.

The discussion was structured around four key application areas: CFD & Engineering, AI/ML & Generative AI, Life Sciences & Sustainability, and Manufacturing & Physical Sciences. For many SMEs, this marked their first hands-on experience with HPC, with participants highlighting its significant value in accelerating processes, increasing efficiency, and enabling new approaches.

A key takeaway from the discussions was that adopting HPC goes beyond technology. It requires a transformation of business models, workflows, and skills. As highlighted by participants, HPC enables companies to rethink operations, increase productivity with existing teams, and expand into new domains.

Several technical insights and challenges were also shared:

• In engineering, ROMs can be a smart way to use HPC and simplifying traditionally complex CFD tools and making them more accessible for industrial use.
• AI and ML use cases demonstrated the power of HPC for training advanced models, such as diffusion models, while also highlighting challenges such as limited debugging capabilities and the need to adapt workflows.
• Data management remains a critical factor, with some teams working under data-sharing constraints or needing to carefully select datasets to optimise performance and results.
• Experiences with European supercomputers such as Leonardo and LUMI were largely positive, particularly when using containerised environments, although differences in hardware (e.g. CUDA vs. AMD GPU ecosystems) required additional adjustments.
• Licensing models for commercial software, especially those based on per-core usage, were identified as a significant barrier when scaling applications on HPC systems.

Despite these challenges, the overall experience confirms that HPC is a powerful enabler for SME innovation, offering new opportunities for optimisation, scalability, and competitiveness.

As the Business Experiments approach their final phase, their achievements and lessons learned will be captured in a series of success stories, showcasing the real impact of HPC adoption across industries.