ОТВОРЕН ПОВИК И ЗА МАКЕДОНСКИ КОМПАНИИ Fortissimo’s Decade-Long Mission Endures: FFplus Project Launches First Open Call for SMEs and Startups Worth 24 Million EUR!

With over a decade-long history and a strong reputation in Europe, the Fortissimo projects (Fortissimo 1 and 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, with a total budget of €30.0 million, including €24.0 million dedicated to SMEs and startups, will continue to support and empower SMEs and startups towards innovation.

Project Coordinator Dr.-Ing. Bastian Koller, Deputy Director of the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, explains another ambitious goal of the new Fortissimo project: “FFplus aims to provide SMEs and Start-ups with the framework they need to be competitive, successful and create value in the digital economy. This makes FFplus an important link between the implementation of the European HPC and AI strategy and the SMEs and Start-ups that can benefit massively from it. With financial support, access to state-of-the-art EuroHPC resources and expert advice on both technical and business development, we are committed to a vibrant and innovative industrial landscape in Europe.”

The First FFplus Open Call for Business Experiments and Innovation Studies is Officially Launched!

FFplus is a European initiative highlighting and promoting the adoption of High-Performance Computing (HPC) by SMEs and Start-ups across Europe. The scope of the targeted actions includes both the solution of business challenges through computational methods on HPC systems and the use of supercomputing resources for the development of (generative) Artificial Intelligence (AI) software solutions and services. The computational methods encompass a large range of possibilities: modelling and simulation, data analytics, machine learning, and AI – all options empowering SMEs through enhanced innovation and competitiveness. The strategic objective of using supercomputers for generative AI is to facilitate and strengthen the technological development of European SMEs in that important area.

SMEs and Start-ups now have the opportunity to shift their innovation potential through the two types of Open Calls (open until September 4th, 2024):

•Business experiments will address the uptake of HPC by SMEs in order to solve specific business challenges of SMEs that have had no prior use of, or experience with, HPC services. The maximum funding request per proposal is € 200,000 (covering all participants).

•Innovation studies will support European SMEs and Start-ups already active in the field of generative AI technology, which lack the necessary computational resources to scale up. The maximum total funding for each innovation study is € 300,000 (covering all participants).

Creating history: Two companies from North Macedonia already participated in the Fortissimo project

Two experiments from North Macedonia were successfully concluded under the auspices of the Fortissimo projects. The experiment consortium, including the manufacturing company Mikrosam from Skopje, supported by Slovene partners Arctur and XLAB, successfully created a success story where partners utilised HPC to optimise the design of high-pressure vessels. Innovation Dooel, an eHealth provider from Skopje, teamed with Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje and the University of Klagenfurt to develop a novel, innovative solution for real-time heart monitoring of thousands of patients.

Are you ready for supercomputing and AI?

We invite companies to find out if they are ready to use supercomputing and AI technologies in their business. Fill in the HPC4SME Assessment Tool and discover if and how the organisation can benefit from supercomputing services free of charge. Companies who will fill-in the report will be further supported by the National Competence Centre. Start here: https://hpc4sme.eu/

For more information, please visit FFplus project website: https://www.ffplus-project.eu/ and https://www.ffplus-project.eu/…/the-first-open-call…/