The FP7 infrastructure project Linking Scientific Computing in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean (LinkSCEEM) coordinated by The Cyprus Institute, and the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) organized the Conference on Scientific Computing 2013 (CSC 2013) in Paphos during 3-6 December2013. Leading international researchers in computational science gathered to present highlights of their scientific work performed using PRACE and LinkSCEEM computational resources - including the Cy-Tera machine funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

CSC 2013 brought together 120 international computational scientists, amongst them the directors of the biggest High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities in Europe and the US. The European research community, local academics, scientists from the Eastern Mediterranean region and the United States had a momentous opportunity to exchange ideas, develop synergies and set out a vision for future development in various aspects of HPC.

Participants had the opportunity to show recent success in HPC, present and debate new methods and results covering a diverse range of topics from fundamental sciences to climate change and medical applications. Scientists from Cyprus and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region used the opportunity to present local HPC related research activities to the international audience.

Conference highlights: From top left clockwise: a) Prof. Th. Lippert presenting plans for the next generation of high performance computers in Europe, b) C. Riviere, Chair of the PRACE Council, presenting during the Panel discussion, c) Poster Session, d) Three best posters award presented by Prof. C. Lang of the PRACE SSC.

The conference offered sessions which focused on the Horizon 2020 program, with a representative of the European Commission (EC) presenting the funding program and initiatives, whilst giving extra attention to the calls related to HPC.  High profile EU officials and prominent scientists participated in a panel discussion that focused on the needs of the HPC user communities. The priorities and aspirations of the EC in HPC in Horizon 2020 were highlighted to the participants allowing for lively discussions among policy-makers, researchers and representatives of computational centers on the available funding opportunities. Participants from the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) stressed the importance of projects like LinkSCEEM for supporting regional computational sciences and urged the EC to continue funding such initiatives.

PRACE provided 18 fellowships for young scientists from 12 PRACE member countries to come and present posters at the conference. Similarly, LinkSCEEM provided funding for 27 fellows from 7 EM countries to present their work at the poster session of the conference.

The distribution of PRACE and LinkSCEEM fellows per country can be seen in the above figure.

PRACE also provided funding for the prizes awarded to the three best posters as voted by participants of the conference. One of these prizes was awarded to a poster from SESAME, Jordan with the topic of the poster being on Synchrotron radiation applications. A PRACE fellow from Sabanci University, Turkey was also amongst the winners with the topic of the poster being on molecular dynamics simulations on a human iron binding protein. The final poster prize was awarded to a LinkSCEEM fellow from the The Cyprus Institute with the topic of the poster being in Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics. Each of the poster prizes comprised of a statue of Aphrodite and 350 Euro for reach winner to attend a scientific conference in their respective fields. The prizes were awarded by Professor C. Lang who is a member of the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee.

During the conference, the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) and the PRACE User Forum also held their annual meetings. PRACE users and PRACE SSC members had the opportunity to exchange views, and discuss issues concerning HPC infrastructure, usage and policies. Moreover, they engaged in a constructive dialogue concerning the involvement of industry and especially SMEs in PRACE.

Group picture of the CSC 2013 participants.

More information about CSC 2013 can be found on the website of the conference: http://cyprusconferences.org/csc2013/

The Project Cy-Tera (ΝΕΑ ΥΠΟΔΟΜΗ/ΣΤΡΑΤΗ/0308/31) is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation.
The PRACE projects and the LinkSCEEM-2 project receive EC funding under the grants RI-261557, RI-281493, RI-312763 and RI-261600 of the Seventh framework programme for research (FP7).