About the EUROHPC JU 

 

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) was established in 2018 in Luxembourg, and runs as a legal and funding entity whose main purpose is to make Europe a world leader in the field of supercomputing. In order to achieve this, the European Union (EU), together with the EuroHPC JU participating states, pool their resources to boost Europe’s scientific excellence and industrial capabilities, support the digital transformation of its economy, and ensure its technological independence. Currently, there are 36 member states and associated countries that are members of the EuroHPC JU.

The key goal of the EuroHPC JU is to procure world-leading infrastructure (supercomputers, quantum computers, AI Factories) and to deploy, extend and maintain the corresponding ecosystem. The ecosystem is supported by a robust supply chain that ensures components, technologies and knowledge supporting a wide range of applications optimized to run on the procured infrastructure. With the availability of infrastructure, the EuroHPC goal is also to widen the use of the available systems to public and private users across Europe and to support the development of high-performance computing (HPC) skills for science, industry and public sector.

 

EUROHPC JU Infrastructure

 

Operational systems

 

The EuroHPC JU has operational 5 petascale systems: Vega (IZUM) in Slovenia, Karolina (IT4 Innovations) in Czechia, MeluXina (LuxProvide) in Luxembourg, Discoverer (SofiaTech) in Bulgaria and Deucalion (MACC, FCT) in Portugal; and 3 pre-exascale systems: LUMI (CSC) in Finland, Leonardo (CINECA) in Italy and MareNostrum 5 (BSC) in Spain.

In 2025, the JU expects another system to become fully operational, which is the European first exascale system, JUPITER (JSC) in Germany.

All of the mentioned infrastructure is listed in the TOP500 list, with JUPITER being ranked number 4 in the most recent edition on 10 June 2025, with its intermediate computing power of nearly 800 petaflops. The first installed module of JUPITER, JEDI, has dominated the Green500 list since its debut in May 2024, maintaining a leading position. The EuroHPC JU pre-exascale systems are all in the first 15 places, with LUMI ranked 9^th, Leonardo 10^th and MareNostrum 5 positioned at number 14.

Figure 1: TOP500 and Green500 rankings from June 2025

 

AI Factories

 

In order to further support the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and the needs of the AI community, the JU has signed hosting agreements with thirteen (13) AI Factories, marking a major step forward in Europe’s ambition to lead in AI and supercomputing. The selected Hosting Entities include: LUMI AI Factory (Finland), HammerHAI and JAIF (Germany), Pharos (Greece), IT4LIA (Italy), L-AI Factory (Luxembourg), BSC AI Factory(Spain), MIMER (Sweden), AI:AT(Austria), BRAIN++ (Bulgaria), AI2F (France), PIAST(Poland), and SLAIF(Slovenia).

These AI Factories will offer both access time and support services to European industry, public sector and scientific users.

 

Quantum systems

 

In addition to offering HPC resources, the JU has invested in ten (10) quantum computers offering six (6) different quantum technologies, located across Europe. The system offering trapped-ions technology is Piast-Q in Poland; the systems offering the neutral atoms technology are Ruby in France, Jade in Germany and EuroQCS-Italy in Italy; the systems offering spin qubits technology are EuroSSQ-HPC in Netherlands and MeluXina-Q in Luxembourg; the system offering annealing technology is EuroQCS in Spain; the system offering star-shaped technology is VQL in Czechia; the system offering crystal technology is Euro-Q-Exa in Germany; and the system offering photonics technology is Lucy in France.

The access to the first EuroHPC JU quantum computers is expected to start in 2025.

 

EUROHPC JU Access Modes

 

The EuroHPC JU offers a variety of access opportunities within different access modes. At the moment, the JU offers eight (8) access calls, including calls for applications that use traditional HPC and calls for applications using AI. From 2021, the JU started offering access to the procured infrastructure by introducing the first calls that were Benchmark Access and Development Access, followed by the Regular Access and Extreme Scale Access. After a growing demand for access modalities for proposals using AI, in 2024, the JU introduced the AI & Data-Intensive Applications Access call which was rebranded into the new AI Factory for Science call. With the announcement of the upcoming AI Factories in 2025, the JU restructured its existing calls into Calls for Traditional HPC Applications and additionally introduced Calls for AI Applications (AI Factories Access calls). Calls for AI Applications includes a call for scientific applications, called the AI for Science and Collaborative EU projects Access (previous AI & Data-Intensive Applications Access call) and three calls for Industrial Innovation – the Playground Access, Fast Lane Access and the Large Scale Access call.

Figure 2: EuroHPC JU Access Modes

 

Each access mode is tailored to different user needs and are subject to different peer-review processes, depending on the level of complexity, maturity and size of the projects.

Applicants can apply for access via the online submission platform available at https://access.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/. All additional documentation required per different access mode is described on the EuroHPC JU pages per access mode indicated in the description of each access call, found below.

 

 

Access Modes for Traditional HPC Applications

 

The EuroHPC JU Access Modes for Traditional HPC Applications can be divided into calls for preparatory activities, which are the Benchmark Access and Development Access calls and into calls for production activities which are the Regular Access and Extreme Scale Access calls.

 

Benchmark Access

The Benchmark Access call is intended for all categories of users who want to collect performance data or test a method, such as machine learning training, on a target system in order to document the technical feasibility of their applications to be submitted to other access modes.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	12 per year - monthly cut-offs
Available systems	Vega, Karolina, MeluXina, Discoverer, Deucalion, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Fixed allocation between 200 and 2,500 node hours
Proposal type	Online form
Peer-review process duration	2 weeks
Peer-review process steps	Eligibility Check - Technical Assessment
Evaluation criteria & grading	Technical feasibility, no grading
Allocation duration	2 or 3 months
Eligible users - Principal Investigator organization type	All organization types
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-call-proposals-benchmark-access_en

 

Development Access

The Development Access mode is intended for projects focusing on code and algorithm development, development of workflows, HPC trainings, as well as Natural Language Processing, Foundation Models and other methods for AI applications. This access mode is mostly targeting medium size executions that do not target large scale production runs and is aiming for code and algorithmic validation before requesting access to an Extreme Scale Access or Regular Access call.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	12 per year - monthly cut-offs
Available systems	Vega, Karolina, MeluXina, Discoverer, Deucalion, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Fixed allocation between 800 and 4,500 node hours
Proposal type	Online form
Peer-review process duration	2 weeks
Peer-review process steps	Eligibility Check - Technical Assessment
Evaluation criteria & grading	Technical feasibility, no grading
Allocation duration	6 or 12 months
Eligible users - Principal Investigator organization type	All organization types
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-call-proposals-development-access_en

 

Regular Access

The Regular Access call is open to all fields of science, industry and the public sector, and invites applications which present compelling cases that will enable scientific innovation in the domains covered. The expected impact in the application’s domain should justify the need for large allocations in terms of compute time, data storage and support resources.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	2 cut-offs per year
Available systems	Vega, Karolina, MeluXina, Discoverer, Deucalion, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5, JUPITER
Resources thresholds	Minimum allocations between 20,000 and 60,000 node hours Maximum allocations between 50,000 and 1,800,000 node hours
Proposal type	Online form and proposal template - Project Scope and Plan
Peer-review process duration	4 months
Peer-review process steps	Administrative Check - Technical assessment - Rapporteur Reporting (Individual and Consolidated Reports) - Super Panel meeting - Resource Allocation Panel meeting - Governing Board results approval
Evaluation criteria & grading	Criteriums: (1) Excellence, (2) Innovation & Impact, (3) Quality & Efficiency of the Implementation Grades: Maximum grade is 5 per criterium, 15 overall. Minimum threshold is grade 3 per criterium and 10 overall
Allocation duration	12 months
Eligible users - Principal Investigator organization type	Scientific Access Track - All organization types Industry Access Track - SMEs, Startups and Large enterprises Public Administration Access Track - Public sector organizations
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-call-proposals-regular-access-mode_en

 

Extreme Scale Access

The Extreme Scale Access mode is intended for applications with high-impact, high-gain innovative research, open to all fields of science, industry and public sector justifying the need for and the capacity to use extremely large allocations in terms of compute time, data storage and support resources. Flagship scientific applications that are able to exploit the full scale of EuroHPC exascale and pre-exascale supercomputers are the main target for Extreme Scale Access.

Cut-offs reoccurrence	2 cut-offs per year
Available systems	LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5, JUPITER
Resources thresholds	Minimum allocations between 100,000 and 250,000 node hours Maximum allocations between 500,000 and 3,000,000 node hours
Proposal type	Online form and proposal template - Project Scope and Plan
Peer-review process duration	6 months
Peer-review process steps	Administrative Check - Technical assessment - Scientific Evaluation - Response phase - Rapporteur Reporting (Individual and Consolidated Reports) - Access Resource Committee meeting - Resource Allocation Panel meeting - Governing Board results approval
Evaluation criteria & grading	Criteriums: (1) Excellence, (2) Innovation & Impact, (3) Quality & Efficiency of the Implementation Grades: Maximum grade is 5 per criterium, 15 overall. Minimum threshold is grade 3 per criterium and 10 overall
Allocation duration	12 months
Eligible users - Principal Investigator organization type	Scientific Access Track - All organization types Industry Access Track - SMEs, Startups and Large enterprises Public Administration Access Track - Public sector organizations
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-call-proposals-extreme-scale-access-mode_en

 

Access Modes for AI Applications – AI Factories Access Modes

In order to serve the immediate needs of the European AI industrial and scientific users, EuroHPC JU relies on the existing operational supercomputers (pre-exascale and petascale systems) capable to support AI applications, to offer resources to the European AI users until the newly procured AI Factories are operational. For that purpose, the EuroHPC JU introduced different AI Factories Access modes, the AI for Science and for Collaborative EU Projects Access call for scientific applications and Playground Access, Fast Lane Access and Large Scale Access calls for industrial applications.

 

AI for Science and for Collaborative EU Projects Access

The AI for Science and for Collaborative EU Projects Access call is intended to support AI applications for science, with a focus on ethical Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and cutting-edge foundation Models and Generative AI, including Large Language Models. This category is intended for scientific research activities that rely on AI models as part of their research workflow.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	6 cut-offs per year
Available systems	MeluXina, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Minimum allocations - 20,000 node hours Maximum allocations - 90,000 node hours
Proposal type	Online form and proposal template - Project Scope and Plan
Peer-review process duration	1 month
Peer-review process steps	Administrative Check - Technical Assessment - Expert Evaluation - Results Consolidation
Evaluation criteria & grading	Criteriums: (1) Excellence, (2) Innovation & Impact, (3) Quality & Efficiency of the Implementation Grades: Maximum grade is 5 per criterium, 15 overall. Minimum threshold is grade 3 per criterium and 10 overall
Allocation duration	6 months
Eligible users - Principal Investigator organization type	All organization types
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-call-proposals-ai-science-and-collaborative-eu-projects_en

 

Playground Access

The Playground Access call is intended for new users coming from industry or those with smaller computational needs for performing AI related computations.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	Continuously open - no cut-off dates
Available systems	Vega, MeluXina, Discoverer, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Fixed allocation - 5,000 GPU hours
Proposal type	Online form
Peer-review process duration	2 working days
Peer-review process steps	Eligibility Check - Technical Assessment
Evaluation criteria & grading	Technical feasibility, no grading
Allocation duration	1, 2 or 3 months
Eligible users – Project Lead organization type	SMEs, Startups and Large enterprises
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/playground-access-ai-factories_en

 

Fast Lane Access

The Fast Lane Access call is intended for users coming from industry familiar with HPC environments requiring fast access for performing AI related computations.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	Continuously open - no cut-off dates
Available systems	MeluXina, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Minimum allocations - 10,000 GPU hours Maximum allocations - 50,000 GPU hours
Proposal type	Online form
Peer-review process duration	4 working days
Peer-review process steps	Eligibility Check - Technical Assessment
Evaluation criteria & grading	Technical feasibility, no grading
Allocation duration	1, 2 or 3 months
Eligible users – Project Lead organization type	SMEs, Startups and Large enterprises
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/fast-lane-access-ai-factories_en

 

Large Scale Access

Large Scale Access call is intended for industry applications performing AI activities with high-impact, high-gain innovative research, justifying the need for and the capacity to use large allocations in terms of compute time, data storage and support services.

 

Cut-offs reoccurrence	24 cut-off dates per year - 2 monthly cut-offs
Available systems	LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5
Resources thresholds	Minimum allocations - 50,000 GPU hours Maximum allocations between 300,000 and 2,400,000 GPU hours per month
Proposal type	Online form
Peer-review process duration	10 working days
Peer-review process steps	Administrative Check - Technical Assessment - Industry Innovation Group Evaluation - Executive Director ranking list approval
Evaluation criteria & grading	Criteriums: (1) Innovation, (2) Impact Grades: Maximum grade is 5 per criterium, 10 overall. Minimum threshold is grade 3 per criterium and 6 overall
Allocation duration	3, 6 or 12 months
Eligible users – Project Lead organization type	SMEs, Startups and Large enterprises
Website	https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/large-scale-access-ai-factories_en

 

 

ELIGIBILITY – Who Can Access the EUROHPC JU Infrastructure?

 

The eligibility to access the EuroHPC JU infrastructure is observed twofold:

• Organization type of the Principal Investigator/Project Lead – where the Principal Investigator/Project Lead should be affiliated to a certain type of the organization either corresponding to a specific type of an access call or to a specific access track
• Organization country of the Principal Investigator/Project Lead and the Team Members (only organizations listed on the Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe lists will be considered)

 

The EuroHPC JU is open to all fields of science and the infrastructure can be accessed by academia, industrial users, SMEs, startups and public sector organizations.

In the access modes for traditional HPC applications, for production activities, the Regular and Extreme Scale Access, there are 3 different access tracks (scientific, industry and public administration) that enable successful proposals prioritisation thresholds while allocating resources: 75% for scientific, 20% for industry and 5% for public administration track.

In order to apply to the Industry or Public Administration access tracks, the Principal Investigator (PI) must be affiliated with Industry or the Public Sector, respectively.

Figure 3: EuroHPC JU eligibility based on type of the Principal Investigator’s/Project Lead’s organization

 

For applying to the AI Factory Industrial Innovation Access calls, Playground, Fast Lane and Large Scale Access, the Project Lead (PL) must be affiliated with an industry organization; commercial company, SME or startup. 

Besides belonging to the corresponding affiliation that matches the access calls requirements and/or access tracks, the main eligibility condition lies in the project team organization countries.

 

Eligible Principal Investigator/Project Lead and Team Members whose organization is:

• Established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to Horizon 2020 for accessing the supercomputers acquired by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1488. This refers to the following systems: Vega, Karolina, MeluXina, Discoverer, Deucalion, LUMI, Leonardo, MareNostrum 5.
• Established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to the Digital Europe Programme or to Horizon Europe for accessing the supercomputers acquired by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking after 2020. This refers to the following systems: JUPITER, upcoming exascale, mid-range and quantum systems.
• Principal Investigators/Project Leads that have an employment contract in the organization at the time of proposal submission and valid for at least 3 months after the end of the allocation period.

 

Figure 4: EuroHPC JU Access Modes Eligibility Flowchart

 

 

Support Services

 

The EPICURE project

 

Under the EuroHPC JU EPICURE project, the proposals awarded via the Access calls are able to have additional support up to 6 months for application porting, optimisation and scalability improvements. The aim of the project is to improve the user support services for successful applicants, to ensure an efficient and timely execution of the applications. In order to apply for the EPICURE support, applicants should indicate in their proposal if they would need assistance from the Application Support Team (AST) while submitting their application to one of the EuroHPC JU Access calls. Additionally, the respective Hosting Entities and/or the Access Resource Committee might suggest using an AST during the evaluation process, if they see a need for it in a proposal.

 

The MINERVA project

 

Under the MINERVA project, users can request support to tackle the challenges of large-scale AI. Through the project, the users can request the following services:

• support for porting AI Applications and workflows to HPC infrastructure,
• support for the use and mastery of AI libraries on HPC architectures,
• support for the pre-training of open, large-scale and foundation models,
• support for the specialization of various open large-scale and foundation models,
• guidance and support on regulations on ethical and responsible AI,
• specialised/advanced training for the AI communities.

The services offered via the MINERVA project can be applied for using the online support form and the support can be requested independently of having an EuroHPC JU access application.

 

 

Guidelines and Advice for Existing, New and Future Applicants

 

The EuroHPC JU would like to point out several guidelines for the applicants to prepare their proposals in high quality, for the users to use their allocations effectively and for the results to be communicated and disseminated in a timely manner:

• EuroHPC JU website updates: the applicants should pay attention to the EuroHPC JU website and social media channels for regular updates concerning the access calls announcements, call cut-off dates and documentation.
• Eligibility criteria: the eligibility criteria should be met, especially focusing on organization countries and organization types for applying to specific access tracks or specialized access calls.
• Company VAT number: for industry applications; the applicants need to provide a valid company VAT number – this is subject to administrative and eligibility checks.
• Grant agreement for EIC/EU projects:

o   For applications applying to the AI Factory industrial innovation Large Scale Access that have a previous EIC Accelerator project that they would like to highlight, the project should be connected to the research in the access application and upload the corresponding Grant Agreement.

o   For applications applying to the AI Factory call AI for Science and Collaborative EU Projects Access that have a previous EU project that they would like to highlight, the project should be connected to the research in the access application and upload the corresponding Grant Agreement.

• Online forms: all requested (mandatory) fields should be elaborated in order for the experts to be able to evaluate the proposal, especially referring to the project purpose, excellence, innovation and impact.
• Proposal template - Project Scope and Plan:

o   The applicants should use the most recent templates available on the EuroHPC JU website.

o   The applicants are advised to read the instructions in the beginning of the document and fill in all required sections and subsections.

o   The helper text and examples are advised to be removed from the final proposal.

o   The applicants should pay attention to the page limit that differs per access mode.

• Project team - team members: the applicants should limit the number of team members involved in the project to a considerable number and if successful, to try to avoid adding new team members that weren’t mentioned in the proposal during the project’s lifetime, unless it is imperative for the project.
• Code suitability: the applicants should test and scale their codes using preparatory access modes prior to submitting an application for production activities.
• Computational resources:

o   The applicants should dully justify their resources requests in their applications and a usage plan should be provided, highlighting the usage peaks.

o   When awarded, the usage should be homogeneous, usage peaks should be planned with the Hosting Entity.

• Access Resource Committee/Hosting Entity/Experts feedback: the applicants should take into consideration feedback provided by the evaluators in case of rejection for resubmissions or for increasing the efficiency and quality of an awarded proposal.
• Communication: the applicants and users are invited to communicate any questions or concerns with the EuroHPC JU and also the Hosting Entities.
• Dissemination: the successful applicants are invited to submit their Final Reports on time (3 months after end allocation date) and to acknowledge the EuroHPC JU and the corresponding computing center when publicizing their results.

 

The EuroHPC JU wishes all applicants successful proposal writing and remains at their disposal for questions and concerns regarding access opportunities at . 

More about the EUROHPC JU here. 

 

Authors: The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Peer-Review Sector