National Centers
The 5 National Centers are aggregations of existing universities, public and private research organizations and bodies, and businesses spread throughout the country and are organized with a Hub & Spoke governance structure, where the Hub performs management and coordination activities and the Spokes conduct research.
There are, in total, 55 Italian universities and Institutions of Higher Learning involved; many of them are engaged in multiple Centers with professors, researchers, doctoral students from different departments. The same applies to public research institutions and other public or private research bodies, 24 total, which network different institutes located throughout Italy, and to some companies (65 total are those participating in the 5 Centers).
The Supercomputing Center is one of five national research centers under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) .Advanced by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the new entity can count on 51 founding members, distributed throughout the national territory, from the public and private scientific research and industry sectors.
Dedicated to high-performance computing (HPC), big data management and quantum computing, the National Supercomputing Center will be based at the Tecnopolo Bologna tech hub: a citadel of innovation promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region, thanks in part to investments by the Italian government and the EU, which already houses the European Weather Data Center (ECMWF) and will soon host the Leonardo supercomputer managed by CINECA and the INFN Computing Center, with the aim of building a distributed, cross-domain infrastructure that will provide scientific the research and manufacturing sector with support for the innovation and digitization of the country.
The center run by the ICSC Foundation will benefit from funding – from Next Generation EU funds, under the PNRR’s Education and Research Mission coordinated by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) – amounting to almost 320 million euros, 41 percent of which will be invested in the South. Specifically, out of the total amount, over 100 million euros will be dedicated to personnel – an investment considered a priority-with a female participation of at least 40 percent, and with almost 16 million euros reserved for doctoral scholarships for higher education and youths’ careers.
FBK, a founding member of the HPC Center, is involved in 3 Spokes:
- co-leader in the Spoke 9 “Digital Society & Smart Cities” with the Digital Society Center;
- affiliated in the Spoke 8 “Insilico Medicine & Omics Data” with the Digital Health & Wellbeing Center;
- affiliated with the Spoke 4 “Earth & Climate” with the Digital Industry Center.
FBK’s role within the ICSC Foundation will support the FBK Strategic Plan on 3 very important pillars both by strengthening the network of strategic collaborations and by contributing substantially to the funding of related activities.
Scientific Contacts
Spoke 4 – Digital Industry Center
Marco Cristoforetti
[email protected]
Spoke 8 – Center for Digital Health & Wellbeing
Giuseppe Jurman
[email protected]
