| Date: | 31 March 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 CET | Price: | Free (for eligible participants) | |
| Location: | Online (Zoom) | Target audience: | Industry, academia, public sector | |
| Language: | English | Organisers: | EuroCC Austria & VSC |
Overview
AI Factories are a new mega-project of the European Union and the world's largest public investment in Artificial Intelligence. But what does this mean in practice?
AI Factory hubs will form a network of "one-stop shops" that provide startups, SMEs, and researchers with low-threshold access to AI-optimised supercomputers, technical expertise, and training. A key focus here is ensuring AI trustworthiness, making cutting-edge AI both powerful and responsible.
Following the selection of the first seven AI Factories by EuroHPC Joint Undertaking in 2024, six more were announced on 12 March 2025. These centres will enable breakthrough research and real-world applications, supporting industries such as healthcare, energy, and climate.
In this webinar, our speakers will walk you through the core concept behind AI Factories and their role in Europe’s AI strategy, as well as services, synergies with existing HPC/AI initiatives like EuroCC, the infrastructure, jobs, and opportunities these new hubs will bring.
After short talks, we invite you to join the Q&A session and ask everything you want to know. Don’t miss this chance to learn how AI Factories will shape the future of AI in Europe!
Agenda
| 13:00 | Welcome Eva Gergely – Project manager and team lead at Vienna University Computer Center, dept. IT-Support for research. | |
| 13:10 | AI Factories – context, value proposition and access Petra Dalunde – Director of the Swedish AI Factory Mimer, Coordinator of the CitCom.ai TEF and Coordinator of Formal test and Evaluation of AI at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Within the CitCom.ai TEF the work at RISE has been focused on delivering AI testing services to AI startups and SMEs. As coordinator for formal testing and evaluation of AI at RISE Petra leads the work within TEAIN, the Test and Evaluation of AI Network at RISE, that focuses on knowledge sharing, research support and expanding the ecosystem. In this presentation, Petra Dalunde will share an overview of this AI ecosystem and concrete projects like TEFs, EDIHs and AI Factories, showcasing how they add value for startups and SMEs in different ways and lead towards trustworthy AI products and services. Zooming in on EuroHPC AI Factories, Petra will discuss the scale of the investment, the key problems the project aims to solve, what it offers to AI startups and SMEs, and when AI Factories open for business. | |
| 13:25 | Synergies between AI Factories and EuroCC Thor Wikfeldt – Director of ENCCS at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Sweden’s National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing within the EuroCC network, ENCCS, provides access to cutting-edge European supercomputing resources, delivers high-quality training in HPC, AI, and related fields, and collaborates with industry partners to develop proof-of-concept solutions that drive technological progress. The EuroCC project was launched in 2020 to accelerate the adoption of high-performance computing (HPC) across academia, the public sector, and industry. A key focus has been to empower SMEs and startups by providing access to cutting-edge HPC resources and expertise, enabling them to leverage these technologies for innovation and competitive advantage. By leveraging the synergies between HPC and AI, these initiatives have the potential to unlock new opportunities for businesses, researchers, and policymakers alike, driving Europe’s digital transformation and strengthening its global position in AI and supercomputing. | |
| 13:35 | AI services Laura Morselli – Senior HPC Technology Specialist & Technical Project Manager at IT4LIA, the Italian AI Factory. At CINECA, Italy’s Supercomputing Centre, Laura coordinates support for national and European projects, leveraging HPC infrastructure to drive the development of large-scale AI models and solutions. Beyond infrastructure and data, the EU AI Factories are committed to building strong AI communities by offering training programs, workshops, and collaborative platforms that empower researchers, developers, and businesses across Europe. Through these initiatives, users can enhance their skills, share knowledge, and accelerate AI adoption. The second part of the talk will focus on the services offered by IT4LIA, the Italian AI Factory. | |
| 13:45 | AIF user journey Markus Stöhr – Project manager of EuroCC Austria (National Competence Centre for Supercomputing, BIg Data and Artificial Intelligence) and Advanced Computing Austria ACA GmbH, one of the consortium leaders of AI Factory Austria (AI:AT). | |
| 13:55 | Q&A + open end | |
Webinar format
This webinar will be delivered as a LIVE ONLINE WEBINAR (using Zoom).
Prices and eligibility
This webinar is funded by the EuroCC 2 project. Therefore, the webinar is open and free of charge for participants from industry, academia and public administration from the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) and Associated/Other Countries to the Horizon 2020 programme.
Registration
Organisers
EuroCC Austria – National Competence Centre for Supercomputing, Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence – helps businesses, academia and the public sector to adopt and leverage advanced computing technologies. It is coordinated by Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) with the University of Vienna, TU Wien and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), in close cooperation with business incubator INiTS.
VSC Research Center, TU Wien is a collaboration of Austrian universities that provides supercomputing resources and support to scientists and researchers.
Acknowledgements
This webinar is funded by the EuroCC 2 project.
The project has received funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101101903. The JU receives support from the Digital Europe Programme and Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Türkiye.
Additional funding for the project comes from the Austrian federal ministries BMBWF and BMK.
