Canada is set to join the European Union’s (EU) supercomputer network, as the European Commission (EC) president announced last week.
With access to the EuroHPC Network, Canada will receive increased support for industry, startups, and research through European supercomputers.
This will encourage Canadian development and production of things such as artificial intelligence models.
Managed by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
With a budget of €8.2 bn, the network includes 14 supercomputers, some of the ten most powerful in the world, as well as 19 AI-focused factories and 10 quantum computers. EuroHPC is also set to manage seven large AI data centres, known as AI gigafactories, planned to be built next year with an investment of €30 bn.
The inclusion of Canada in EuroHPC strengthens cooperation in computing capacity and reduces reliance on global superpowers such as the United States. Canada has had previous experience with the EU’s computer science sector, with partial involvement in the Horizon Europe research and innovation program, which partly funds EuroHPC.
Several other non-EU countries have been involved with the network, including the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Canada and the EU are forging strong bonds
In February, the Canada-EU SAFE Agreement was signed, and in April it was entered into provisional application. This enabled Canadian companies and products to participate in procurement under the SAFE instrument, and Canadian companies can now bid on SAFE-funded contracts with up to 80% Canadian content.
Canada is the first non-European country to join the EU’s SAFE defence procurement initiative.
Furthermore, Canada is looking at deepening cooperation with EU member states by enhancing collaborative procurement and capability-development initiatives that are mutually beneficial.
Read more about these agreements and thoughts shared by Global Affairs Canada, here
