FFplus Project: A Decade of Empowering European SMEs Through Innovation
Building on the methods and accomplishments of the Fortissimo project series, FFplus, with a total budget of €30.0 million, will continue to support and empower SMEs and Start-ups towards innovation. With over a decade-long history and a strong reputation in Europe, the Fortissimo projects (Fortissimo, Fortissimo 2, FF4EuroHPC) were granted a budget of €42.8 million and successfully executed more than 130 experiments involving more than 300 partners. These efforts have resulted in 120 success stories from over 20 EU countries, where SMEs developed new products and services with the help of HPC and AI, thereby bolstering the EU economy. Building on the methods and accomplishments of the Fortissimo project series, FFplus, will continue to support and empower SMEs and Start-ups towards innovation.
Before the launch of the second Open Call, we spoke with Project Coordinator Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller, Deputy Director of the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, and Open Call Lead Dr. Guy Lonsdale, CEO of scapos, who shared valuable insights into the world of Fortissimo.
The iconic Fortissimo project series has been running since 2014, spanning more than a decade. How did the story of its success begin?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: Well, at that time, the European Commission had increasingly focused on onboarding SMEs to HPC in order to increase the competitiveness of European SMEs. This opened a chance, and the University of Edinburgh's Supercomputing Centre (EPCC) took a lead role and brought together the key people to manifest the Fortissimo concept in a first project. These key players already had good experience working with industry, especially SMEs, as well as experience in setting up and running open calls within projects.
What has made this project series so successful and impactful that it continues to receive funding after all these years?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: I would say the key words are ‘success stories’. Since Fortissimo (I), the success stories speak for themselves and are inspiring the industrial community as well as the entire HPC landscape. Fortissimo has continued to evolve and has also produced the success stories in such a way that they demonstrate the benefits of an open call experiment in a manner that is understandable for the industry. At the same time, it is always important to us to provide the funding agencies with strong counter-value for the (not only monetary) trust they place in us. The Fortissimo series has thus developed into an important part of the EU's SME strategy.
The Fortissimo projects have profoundly influenced the adoption of HPC by European SMEs. How does FFplus build upon this legacy, and what new dimensions does it bring to the table?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: FFplus is a further development of the previous projects. On the one hand, it continues the classic path of business experiments with HPC, but at the same time, it addresses the ever-growing need to make AI technologies usable for SMEs. As a result, there are now two tracks in the Open Calls for the first time: a classic one, addressing utilisation of HPC, as in the previous projects, and a new one, utilising generative AI, to realise innovation studies for SMEs and start-ups with AI.
As the coordinator of FFplus and EUROCC2 projects, what are the main collaboration goals among FFplus partners and NCCs from 33 European Countries?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: The classic saying is ‘do good and talk about it’. However, this is easier said than done, as the target groups of SMEs and start-ups are not always easy to reach. With the network of National Competence Centres, EuroHPC has created a multiplier that ideally sits directly with SMEs and start-ups and can promote the FFplus opportunities (open call, funding, HPC, and AI) to them. At the same time, the NCCs can offer SMEs and start-ups assistance, from support in writing applications to help with onboarding to the EuroHPC systems.
How does FFplus contribute to the EU’s economy and innovation landscape?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: For me, FFplus acts as a kind of accelerator. It speeds up processes without creating complete dependency and, by promoting SMEs and start-ups, unlocks potential that they would otherwise struggle to utilise. For the experiment/innovation study partners, it is primarily about their business model, but at the same time, we demonstrate to similar SMEs and start-ups what is possible through the success stories. This can have a multiplier effect, making it clearer to companies that an investment in this area is promising.
What is your vision for the future of projects like Fortissimo and FFplus? How do you see them shaping the trajectory of industrial digitalization and Europe’s competitiveness on the global stage?
Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller: I am, of course, biased and therefore say that projects like Fortissimo must always continue. After all, activities such as FFplus can offer targeted support to companies to utilise the full potential of technologies. Europe can thus progressively push its companies into a much better competitive position. At the same time, there is great potential for start-ups to become champions, especially in the AI sector, and to get a quick boost with a programme like ours.
If I look at it from a more distant perspective, I see it the same way, but with the clear premise that it will continue to evolve based on the needs of the target groups. Even now in FFplus, we are continuously learning from the experiments/innovation studies we have carried out: what was well planned/defined by us, what may still be missing, or what isn’t working as we had imagined. And yes, we can gradually improve this with Open Call 2 and 3, but then theoretically that would be the end of it. The Open Call system has already been used in other projects in a similar way to FFplus, so our experience can help here too.
Let’s take a closer look at the proposals selected in the first Open Call. What technologies are being utilised in most cases? Which sectors are leading the way? Are there any "hot topics" or key challenges that businesses are particularly focused on addressing? What about EU countries? Are there certain countries that stand out as leaders in submitting applications to the call?
Dr. Guy Lonsdale: As mentioned, we have proposals of two types: addressing any type of SME business challenge by using HPC, and using HPC to develop or tune/adapt generative AI methodologies and tools. For the latter, we see a range of technologies and approaches depending on a broad spread of specific application targets. But one of the striking things – and a change that gained momentum with the previous FF4EuroHPC project – is that the AI/ML topic is present in the majority of proposals selected in the former type of proposals. Where modelling and simulation play a key role, this is often combined with the use of AI/ML approaches or integrated into digital twins.
Concerning the “EU demographics” of proposal submissions and selections, while a small number of countries were particularly well represented in terms of the number of proposal submissions (here I would highlight Germany, Italy, and Spain), we are proud to see that a large number of EuroHPC member states are represented in the set of sub-projects that will be executed as a result of the first call.
SMEs often face technical and financial barriers when adopting HPC and AI. What are some key strategies FFplus employs to overcome these challenges and demonstrate tangible business benefits?
Dr. Guy Lonsdale: The key FFplus (and indeed, in general, Fortissimo) approach is to design the experiments or studies in terms of scope and time-frame, such that a very concrete business challenge can be addressed. An open-ended research target is not appropriate. Each of the sub-projects is provided with funding that should be commensurate with achieving the experiment/study objectives. Of course, it is not possible within the framework of FFplus to provide funding for the SMEs to assist with their post-project exploitation path. Concerning the provision of necessary technical support – each business experiment or innovation study can comprise a small consortium, where the technical competences of the SME are complemented by supporting partners bringing in the necessary technical expertise (whether from the targeted application field or the key HPC/IT/software technology).
FFplus partners will probably use state-of-the-art EuroHPC JU systems for their business experiments and innovation studies.
Dr. Guy Lonsdale: There is a somewhat different answer to that question depending on the type of FFplus sub-project. For the business experiments, there is a chance to use leading-edge systems to investigate the potential of using HPC for addressing their business challenges. The scale of resources to be used might not be such that such a system would be otherwise unavailable, but the EuroHPC JU systems are provided free of charge and so permit the experiments to make optimal use of the budget provided by FFplus to address their business challenge. For the innovation studies, where the development of generative AI technology, such as the training of LLMs, requires extremely large-scale resources, the EuroHPC JU systems represent a unique opportunity in Europe. The EuroHPC JU’s systems can be the vehicle with which the FFplus sub-projects generate their success stories, building the innovation potential of the participating SMEs and promoting HPC as an innovation vehicle for European industry, and SMEs in particular, as a whole.