Activities of Marisa MATIAS related to 2020/0260(NLE)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a Council regulation on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking
Amendments (38)
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) The Communication from the Commission of 10 March 2020 entitled ‘A new Industrial Strategy for Europe’ is reflecting 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. The development of High Performance Computing and the implementation of its infractuctures should be a strategic instrument for the reinforcement of SME's and their resilience, while at the same time combating regional disparities, focusing in quality of jobs and contributing to the fight against the climate changes.
Amendment 102 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) 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, as well as 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 energysustainable clean energy technologies, drug design and virtual testing, sustainable agriculture, or engineering and manufacturing.
Amendment 109 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) 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, 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 keyn important role in health and personalised medicinesector.
Amendment 118 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) In order for the Union and its Member States to reach technological autonomy in key digital technologies such as High Performance Computing and quantum computing, they should invest in next generation low-powerhighly 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 for medicine, the environment, manufacturing and engineering. 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.
Amendment 125 #
(17) A Joint Undertaking represents the best available instrument capable to implement the strategic EU vision in High Performance Computing and quantum computing, ensuring that the Union enjoys world-class supercomputing, quantum computing and data capabilities according to its economic potential, matching the needs of European users, and with the required strategic autonomy in critical High Performance Computing and quantum computing technologies. The Joint Undertaking is the best instrument to overcome the present limitations, as described in the Staff Working Document accompanying this Regulation, 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, the Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe and 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.
Amendment 128 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is part of the Institutionalised Partnerships portfolio under Horizon Europe which should strive to strengthen EU scientific capacities to deal with emerging threats and future challenges in a reinforced European Research Area; secure sustainability-driven EU value chains and EU strategic autonomy in key technologies and industries; 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 in 2050 at the latest.
Amendment 141 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 26
Recital 26
(26) 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 promoting gender balanced representation, in HPC carrer paths.
Amendment 144 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 30
Recital 30
(30) 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, fair, transparent 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.
Amendment 149 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) 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 this 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.
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 37
Recital 37
(37) 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 in position 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 (‘Governing Board’) following a open, fair and transparent 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.
Amendment 157 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 39
Recital 39
(39) 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 financial contribution to the acquisition costs from Digital Europe Programme funds. The hosting entity should be selected by the Governing Board following a open, fair and transparent 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 or when it is being wound up. The hosting entity should reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual value of the supercomputer.
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 40
Recital 40
(40) The Joint Undertaking should be able to acquire together with the Private Members or 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 Private Members or the consortium of private partners for the acquisition and operation of such supercomputer. The Joint Undertaking should own the part that corresponds to the Union's share of financial contribution to the acquisition costs from Digital Europe Programme funds. The hosting entity and its associated Private Members or consortium of private partners should be selected by the Governing Board following a open, fair and transparent 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 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 Private Members or the consortium of private partners to sell such supercomputer to another entity or decommission it. Alternatively, the Joint Undertaking should be able to transfer the ownership of such supercomputer to the Private Members or the consortium of private partners. In this case or when the Joint Undertaking is being would-up, the Private Members or the consortium of private partners should reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual value of the Union’s share of the supercomputer. In the case the Joint Undertaking and the Private Members or 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 Private Members or the consortium of private partners.
Amendment 161 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 42
Recital 42
(42) The current environmental footprint of the ICT sector is estimated to be between 5 to 9% of the world 's total electricity use and more 2% of all emissions, a large part of which is due data centres cloud services and connectivity. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the design and operation of the supercomputers supported by the Joint Undertaking should take into considerationare in line with energy efficiency andfirst principle, environmental sustainability and circularity, using for example electricity produced from renewable sources, low-power technology, dynamic power-saving and re-use techniques like advanced cooling and heat recycling.
Amendment 166 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 43
Recital 43
(43) The use of the supercomputers of the Joint Undertaking should be primarionly for civilian applications for public and private users residing, established or located in a Member State or in a country associated to the Digital Europe Programme and to Horizon Europe. Users should be granted 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.
Amendment 171 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 44
Recital 44
(44) 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 and transparent 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 this access, in accordance with the Horizon Europe Regulation. 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 either by the Union or by the Governing Board. 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 High Performance Computing Centres of Excellence and Competence Centres, the Digital Innovation Hubs, etc. Upon 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 an EU Member State or a country associated to the Digital Europe Programme and 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.
Amendment 197 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point a
(a) to contribute to the implementation of Regulation (EU) No xxx establishing Horizon Europe and in particular Article 3 thereof, to deliver scientific, economic, environmental, technological and societal impact from the Union's investments in research and innovation, so as to strengthen the scientific and technological bases of the Union, deliver on the Union strategic priorities, contribute to the realisation of EU objectives and policies, and contribute to tackling global challenges, including the Sustainable Development Goals by following the principles of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 199 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
(a a) to contribute to tackling global challenges, including the Sustainable Development Goals by following the principles of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement and to accelerate the social, ecological and economic transitions in areas and sectors of strategic importance for Union priorities, in particular to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in accordance with the targets set in line with European Green Deal;
Amendment 202 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) to develop close cooperation and ensure coordination with other European Partnerships, including through joint calls, as well as seek synergies with relevant activities and programmes at Union, national, and regional level, in particular with those supporting the deployment of innovative solutions, education and regional development, where relevant;
Amendment 206 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point d
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point d
(d) to federate the hyper-connected supercomputing and data infrastructure and interconnect it with the European data spaces and cloud ecosystem for providing computing and data services to a wide and geographically balanced range of public and private users in Europe;
Amendment 212 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point e
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point e
(e) to further develop and support a highly competitive and, innovative and climate friendly supercomputing and data ecosystem in Europe contributing to the standing and technological autonomy of the Union in the digital economy, capable to autonomously produce computing technologies and architectures and their integration on leading computing systems, and advanced applications optimised for these systems;
Amendment 218 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point f
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point f
(f) to widen the use of supercomputing services and the development of key skills that European science, society, economy, environment and industry need.
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 3
Article 3 – paragraph 3
(3) The Joint Undertaking shall contribute to safeguarding the interests of the Union when procuring supercomputers and supporting the development of High Performance Computing technologies, systems and applications. It shall enable a co-design approach for the acquisition of world-class supercomputers, while safeguarding the security of the supply chain of procured technologies and systems. It shall contribute to the Union’s technological autonomy by supporting the development of technologies and applications reinforcing the European HPC technology supply chain and promoting their integration in supercomputing systems that address a large number of societal and industrial needs. The Joint Undertaking shall guarantee that High Performance Computers in the Union are accessible exclusively to entities which comply with Union law on data protection, privacy and security;
Amendment 230 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point c – point ii
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point c – point ii
(ii) support to the interconnection of the supercomputing, and quantum computing data infrastructures with the Union's common European data spaces and federated, secure cloud infrastructures without jeopardising data protection and privacy;
Amendment 247 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point e – point ii
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point e – point ii
ii) support, among others, to Centres of Excellence in High Performance Computing applications and large-scale High Performance Computing-enabled pilot demonstrators and test-beds for big data applications and services in a wide range of scientific, environmental and industrial sectors.
Amendment 265 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – introductory part
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – introductory part
(5) Following an open, fair and transparent call for expression of interest, the hosting entity referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and the corresponding Participating State where the hosting entity is established or the corresponding hosting consortium shall be selected by the Governing Board through a fair and transparent process based, inter alia, on the following criteria:
Amendment 271 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – point f – indent 1 (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – point f – indent 1 (new)
- Geographical balance;
Amendment 272 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point d
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point d
(d) the plans regardensuring the supercomputer's energy efficiency and environmental sustainability;
Amendment 285 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 14 – paragraph 1
Article 14 – paragraph 1
(1) The use of EuroHPC supercomputers shall be open to users from the public and private sectors and shall primarionly focus on civilian applications. Except for the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers, their use shall be primarily for research and innovation purposes falling under public funding programmes, for public sector applications and for private innovation activities of SMEs, where appropriate.
Amendment 305 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 4
Article 22 – paragraph 4
(4) The Commission shall carry out an interim evaluation of each Joint Undertaking as part of the Horizon Europe interim evaluation, as specified in Article 47 of Regulation (EU) No xxx establishing Horizon Europe. This evaluation shall be performed with the assistance of independent experts on the basis of a transparent process once there is sufficient information available about the implementation of Horizon Europe, but no later than four years after the start of Horizon Europe implementation. The evaluations shall examine how the Joint Undertaking fulfils its mission according to its economic, technological, scientific, societal and policy objectives, including climate-related objectives, and evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, and Union added value of its activities as part of Horizon Europe, its synergies and complementarities with relevant European, national and, where relevant, regional initiatives, including synergies with other parts of Horizon Europe (such as missions, clusters or thematic/specific programmes). Impacts achieved at Union and national level, taking into account the component of synergies and policy retrofitting will be given particular attention. The evaluations shall, where relevant, also include an assessment of the long-term scientific, societal, economic, environmental and policy-relevant impact of the Joint Undertaking and shall include an assessment of the most effective policy intervention mode for any future action, as well as the positioning of any possible renewal of the Joint Undertaking in the overall European Partnerships landscape and its policy priorities.
Amendment 316 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) initiate and manage the calls for expression of interest for hosting EuroHPC supercomputers and evaluate the offers received, in an open and transparent manner with the support of independent external experts;
Amendment 317 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point h
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point h
(h) initiate open calls for proposals and award funding in accordance with Regulation (EU) xxx establishing Horizon Europe, and within the limits of available funds, to indirect actions, mainly in the form of grants, promoting a balanced gender participation;
Amendment 318 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point k
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point k
(k) ensure the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of the European High Performance Computing initiative, based on a set of appropriate measures;
Amendment 319 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point k – indent 1 (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point k – indent 1 (new)
- consider the 'Do No Significant Harm Principle' pursuant to Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 and take into account the provisions of that Regulation to improve access to sustainable finance, where relevant;
Amendment 321 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point o – indent 1 (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point o – indent 1 (new)
- promote the involvement of SME's in their activities and take measures ensuring information to SME's , in line with the objectives of Horizon Europe;
Amendment 327 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – point 3 – point i
Article 7 – point 3 – point i
(i) where appropriate, lay down rules on the secondment of national experts, including their remuneration to the Joint Undertaking and on the use of trainees in accordance with Article 19(2) of this Regulation;
Amendment 329 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – point 1 – introductory part
Article 8 – point 1 – introductory part
(1) The Commission shall propose a list of candidates for Executive Director after consultation of the members other than the Union of the Joint Undertaking. For the purpose of such consultation the members other than the Union of the Joint Undertaking shall appoint by common accord their representatives as well as an observer on behalf of the Governing Board. The list shall ensure equal representation and opportunities for men and women.
Amendment 332 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – point 2
Article 10 – point 2
(2) The Research and Innovation Advisory Group shall consist of no more than ten members, which shall be appointed by the Private Members taking into account their commitments to the Joint Undertakingand the Infrastructure Advisory Group shall each consist of ten members; .
Amendment 334 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – point 3
Article 10 – point 3
(3) The Infrastructure Advisory Group shall consist of ten members. The Governing Board shall establish the specific criteria that will be considered for selecting the members of the Infrastructure Advisoryse Groups. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Governing Board shall appoint the members of the Infrastructure Advisoryse Groups, following inputs received from the Governing Board and the Executive Director. and in case of The Research and Innovation Advisory Group, taking into account the recommendations from Private Members;