Welcome!
This page provides information for researchers in the UK who would be interested in developing or strengthening collaborative links with fellow European researchers.
What is HPC-Europa2?
HPC-Europa2’s EC-funded Transnational Access programme offers European-based computational scientists the opportunity to travel to another country to work in collaboration with researchers in a similar field, while having access to some of the most powerful computers in Europe.
HPC-Europa2 applicants identify a suitable “host” group with similar research interests to their own. Researchers from any institute in the UK can host an HPC-Europa2 visit from a researcher working in a group in another European country.
Visitors have access to the High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities at the associated HPC-Europa2 partner site (for visitors coming to the UK, this is EPCC), and receive consultancy and support from staff there. This means that HPC-Europa2 is suitable even for researchers with little or no experience of HPC.
HPC-Europa2 pays travel and living expenses and takes care of all the visit administration, leaving the hosts to focus on what is important to them: the scientific collaboration.
UK-based researchers may also apply for HPC-Europa2 visits to research institutes associated with any of the other HPC centres offering Transnational Access visits. These are BSC (Spain), CINECA (Italy), CSC (Finland), GENCI-CINES (France), HLRS (Germany) and SARA (the Netherlands).
How does HPC-Europa2 benefit the local research community?
HPC-Europa2 provides an excellent opportunity for hosts to establish links with European research groups outside the UK with related research interests. To make this process easier, all the financial and logistical aspects of the visits are dealt with by EPCC, allowing visitors and their hosts to focus entirely on their research activities.
Visits may result in joint publications started during the visit and longer-term collaborations, eg through joint research grants. Some of our previous visitors have gone on to be offered postdoctoral research fellowships within their former host department.
What does hosting a visitor involve?
The host researcher’s main responsibility is to provide an intellectual environment in which the visitor can focus on their research activities. Visitors are expected to be fully integrated into the life of the host department, eg through discussion or collaboration with researchers with related research interests and by involvement in departmental talks and seminars, coffee meetings, etc.
The host’s only logistical responsibilities are to secure access to a desk with a computer network connection in an office in the host department and provide access to facilities such as printer, photocopier, fax, etc.
EPCC will liaise with the visitor to arrange travel and (if coming to Edinburgh) accommodation, set up access to EPCC’s HPC systems, register the visitor for courses, and during the visit will offer consultancy sessions on a regular basis with the visitor’s technical contact (a named member of EPCC staff who is available to help with parallelisation of code and any issues relating to our HPC systems).
For visitors coming to Edinburgh University, EPCC will enter the visitor in the Visitor Registration System, which generates a UUN for central university services such as EASE and the wireless and LapLan2 networks, and arrange for the visitor to have a university card (for door swipe access and library borrowing).
For further details, please refer to the Host Guide
How is the application process organised?
Interested researchers can apply for an HPC-Europa2 visit at any time using the on-line application form available at http://www.hpc-europa.eu/. All applicants should read the Guidelines before starting to complete the form.
There are four closing dates per year, and the selection meeting typically takes place around one month afterwards.
Proposed hosts will be contacted shortly after the closing date with details of the relevant application(s) for which they should provide a very brief evaluation. This is just one of the evaluations which will be used to decide whether or not to accept an application.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to make contact with their proposed hosts before submitting their application. However, not everyone does this, and in some cases we receive applications with no specified host, or the proposed host is not interested, so the HPC-Europa2 team has to try to find someone with similar research interests. This means that sometimes a host may only hear about an application when the HPC-Europa2 team gets in touch to request the host evaluation form.
Applications are reviewed by the Scientific Users Selection Panel (SUSP). which is composed of scientific experts who are independent from HPC-Europa2.
The panel selects applicants principally on the basis of scientific merit, although other considerations will be taken into account, such as the case for access to HPC facilities or the potential benefit of the visit to the applicant.
Therefore although we strongly encourage potential hosts to invite researchers with related interests in other European countries to apply to visit them, no guarantee can be made regarding the acceptance of any given application.
How to get involved
If you would like your group to be added to the list of prospective host researchers in the UK, simply contact access@hpc-europa.org with your details.
Your help in bringing this programme to the attention of your colleagues and prospective applicants would also be greatly appreciated. Please see the HPC-Europa2 dissemination pages if you would like to download a flyer for your departmental noticeboard or a web banner to include on your personal or group webpage.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact access@hpc-europa.org. We value your opinion!
What our hosts say…
Here are some quotes from our hosts (some refer to TRACS, the predecessor of HPC-Europa):
This is an excellent scheme that supports the mobility of foreign researchers without incurring heavy organisational demands on the academic hosts.
—Dr Philip Camp, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh
Extensive discussions between the visitor and myself were of great value to us both. We submitted a co-authored paper during the visit, partly using results that were obtained using the HPC facilities at EPCC.
—Dr Adam Butler, BioSS (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland)
I found this to be a very positive experience, which made a significant contribution to my own research
—Dr Adam Butler, BioSS (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland)
I have hosted several HPC-Europa(x) visitors and it has always been a pleasure, both in terms of the scientific interaction and in the support provided by the Edinburgh team.
—Dr Philip Camp, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh
A useful and flexible way of initiating a high-risk project.
—Prof Mike Cates, Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, School of
Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
The organisation went very smoothly and the EPCC staff were very helpful and prompt in supporting the work.
—Dr Antonis Giannopoulos, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, School of Engineering
The HPC initative has provided the opportunity of building a collaboration I envisage will be long lasting
—Dr Pietro Lió, Computing Laboratory, University of Cambridge
I regularly encourage existing or potential collaborators to apply for HPC Europa visits. I think they are very good value, given that I am interested in computer simulations the match is practically ideal. In almost all cases I am following up collaborations with visitors.
—Dr Davide Marenduzzo, Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
The follow-up collaboration has been a significant contribution to the Department’s research profile.
—Prof. Doug Heggie, School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh
We have found all these visits rewarding in different ways
—Prof. Chris Eilbeck, Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University
The personal contact (with this visitor) has helped lead to a further major EU contract in the fifth framework.
—Prof. Ian Main, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh
From the host’s point of view, the TRACS scheme has everything going for it.
—Prof Mike Cates, Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
The consistently excellent support provided by the TRACS team really does take all the administrative strain, leaving host and visitor to concentrate on what they do best.
—Dr Murray Cole, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Read what our former visitors say about their experience as HPC-Europa visitors.