HPC-Europa3 visitor programme

• Access to world-class HPC systems to academic and industrial researchers
• Scientific collaboration with host researchers in any field
• Technical support by the HPC centres
• Travel and living expenses reimbursed.

Over 600 HPC-Europa3 applications have now been approved for visits to collaborate with more than 350 different host researchers in the 9 participating countries. There have been 88 HPC-Europa3 visits to EPCC, by researchers working in 19 different countries. The HPC-Europa3 programme has now been running for three years. Its main focus is its visitor programme, which funds short collaborative research visits in any discipline in which high performance computing can be used. 

The visits continue to be highly successful, with over 100 publications having resulted from the work done so far by visitors to all of the participating centres. There is also much evidence of many collaborative links continuing long after visits are complete. 

An HPC-Europa visitor's experience

In 2019 Giuseppe Negro was in the final year of his PhD at the University of Bari, Italy, when he undertook his first HPC-Europa3 visit, to collaborate with Prof. Davide Marenduzzo of the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh.

After submitting his thesis that December, Giuseppe carried out a second HPC-Europa3 visit to the same group in Jan-Feb 2020. Following on from these successful visits, Giuseppe secured a post-doctoral research contract in the group. He also had his PhD defence exam in March which, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he did from Edinburgh via Skype. Giuseppe tells us more...

“My research involves modelling and simulations of soft composite materials focusing on biological fluids. During my first visit in April and May 2019, we worked on simulations of 3D droplets of active cholesteric liquid crystals embedded in an isotropic liquid, understanding the outcome of the interplay between chirality and activity in active fluids. This work resulted in a very important publication1 co-authored by myself, my PhD supervisor Prof. Giuseppe Gonnella (University of Bari), my HPC-Europa3 host Prof. Davide Marenduzzo, and Livio Carenza, a PhD colleague from Bari who also made two HPC-Europa3 visits to the same host group at around the same time.

“During my second visit at the start of 2020, we performed simulations on active nematic liquid crystals confined in shells. Imposing topological constraints on the orientational order allows global control of active materials. Through high-demanding simulations we were able to discover new hydrodynamics regimes, ranging from regular motility modes to chaotic motion. These studies suggest new strategies to control active materials, and use the self-sustained flows they produce in new bio-inspired materials.

“My visits led me to secure a contract within my host group, where I will continue to study the complex interplay between topological defects and their induced flows in confined active liquid crystals.”

1. www.pnas.org/content/116/44/22065.short

The next closing date for HPC-Europa3 is 17 September 2020. 

HPC-Europa3 is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 730897. The programme runs until October 2021.