Within the EuroCC project under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program (H2020), participating countries are tasked with establishing a single National Competence Centre (NCC) in the area of high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performance data analytics (HPDA). Each NCC will coordinate activities in all HPC-related fields at the national level and serve as a contact point for customers from industry, science, (future) HPC experts, and the general public alike.

For Belgium, the NCC is a consortium of 12 entities:

• CECI: the 5 French speaking Universities (http://www.ceci-hpc.be/)
• VSC: the 5 Flemish speaking Universities (https://vscentrum.be/), also Tier 1 operator for Flanders
• Cenaero: Research center (http://www.cenaero.be/), Tier1 operator for Wallonia
• Innoviris: Research & Innovation hub (https://innoviris.brussels/)

These are the objectives of EuroCC Belgium:

• Support usage of high-performance computing and data analytics
• Set up a full training offer
• Set up a framework to ease access to HPC/HPDA for industry
• Identify available competences at national and European level
• Facilitate access to systems, scientific and technical expertise and knowledge pools
• Set up communication and dissemination actions

Ghent University is joint task-leader of WP30.5, set on mapping HPC/Big Data/AI technical competences within Belgium. UGent is further involved as a contributor in WP30.3 focusing on ‘Technology Transfer/Business Development’ and WP30.4 ‘Collaboration with Industry’.