CyI’s Computation-based Science and Technology Research Centre (CaSToRC) has been awarded a prestigious ERA Chair grant within the EU's Horizon 2020 research funding programme, in the area of “Modelling and SIMulation for Engineering Applications” (SimEA). The prestigious grant will significantly expand the research portfolio of the centre by establishing a team of outstanding researchers led by a professor of international calibre in computation-based engineering, who will be recruited specifically for this purpose. This is a tremendous success, and it is the second ERA Chair grant awarded to The Cyprus Institute, following the “Solar Thermal Energy for the Eastern Mediterranean (CySTEM) ERA chair awarded in 2015.

Research at CaSToRC addresses complex research problems in science, engineering and the humanities by applying advanced computational and data methodologies, and cultivates the use of High Performance Computing and Data Science in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean. With its Cy-Tera Tier-1 supercomputing facility and prototype machines, CaSToRC provides infrastructure for compute and data intensive applications to the research community of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean and has established itself as the national supercomputing facility of Cyprus.

The SimEA ERA Chair will bring in the technology leadership in computational engineering that is essential for complementing the current research activities at CaSToRC. Computational Engineering is inherently a highly interdisciplinary field and lies at the interface of mathematics, computer science and other scientific domains. Its very nature facilitates interactions and synergies among researchers from diverse fields, contributing to an integrative development of software and algorithms to enable the efficient utilization of hardware in order to address challenging engineering problems of societal impact and practical importance. The SimEA ERA Chair project will bring a number of benefits, which include:

• conducting cutting-edge research in computational engineering and maximally utilizing and upgrading CaSToRC’s advanced computing and data infrastructure;
• fostering collaborations with other research groups within CaSToRC, CyI and with other local and international institutions;
• attracting further competitive funding through previously untapped opportunities by capitalizing on the interdisciplinary environment and advanced infrastructure of CaSToRC;
• spearheading entrepreneurship and industrial collaboration by formulating and implementing appropriate structural changes;
• contributing towards the development of an innovation culture for the centre, CyI and the country.

The SimEA project is of five years duration and includes a 2.5 million euro contribution from the EU plus a 700,000 euro contribution from CyI that will be utilized for infrastructure upgrades to best serve the research and innovation targets of the project. The SimEA project is coordinated by Prof. Constantia Alexandrou, the acting Director of CaSToRC.

The international character and interdisciplinary environment of CyI, its strong funding and research record, and its outstanding infrastructure, are key elements in attracting an ERA Chair of the highest international standing that will make the project a success not only for CyI, but also for Cyprus and the region.