Mission

The High-Performance Computing, Big Data e Quantum Computing Research Centre, created and managed by the ICSC, is one of the five National Centres established by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), covering designated strategic sectors for the development of the country: i.e., simulations, computing, and high-performance data analysis, Agritech, development of gene therapy and drugs via RNA technology, sustainable mobility, biodiversity.

The activities of the National Supercomputing Centre will focus on maintenance and upgrade of the Italian HPC and Big Data infrastructure, as well as on the development of advanced methods and numerical applications and software tools to integrate computing, simulation, collection, and analysis of data of interest for research, manufacturing, and society, also through cloud and distributed approaches.

Soon the Centre will be implementing solutions that will lead to a network speed of 1 Terabit/second, making a cloud infrastructure available to users, enabling management of ground-breaking activities, in scientific research and industrial development.

It will involve and promote the best interdisciplinary skills of science of engineering, in favour of substantial and sustainable innovations in areas spanning from basic research to computing sciences for climate, the environment, space, from the study of matter and life to medicine, from technologies of materials to information systems and devices. It will support advanced training and promote the development of policies for responsible management of data from an open data and open science perspective, combining regulatory, standardization and compliance profiles.

ICSC will be a shared and open cloud/HPC infrastructure, representing a unique strategic asset for Italy, but for the international community as well.

Organization

As with all NRRP National Centres, the supercomputing Centre is a pool of universities, institutions, public and private institutions, and companies located nationwide and is organised according to a Hub-like structure and Spokes, where the Hub is responsible for management and coordination and the Spokes are the operative centres where objectives are reached.

More specifically, the High-Performance Computing, Big Data e Quantum Computing Research Centre gather Italian scientific communities of excellence from ten different fields and is structured along two equally important main pillars: infrastructures and subject areas. A key aspect of the Centre is the involvement of Italian companies to build a synergy between scientific communities and the industrial sector, to benefit both research and the productive system. The Hub is in charge of validating and managing work programmes, whose activities are elaborated and carried out by the Spokes and their affiliates, also through calls open to research institutions and external companies of the ICSC Foundation which manages the Centre.

There are 11 Spokes, one dedicated to infrastructure while the remaining 10 focused on 10 distinct subject areas.

Industrial Advisory Board
Chair – Carlo Cavazzoni (Leonardo)
Danilo Gismondi (Gruppo Autostrade)
Vito Morreale (Engineering)
Sergio Zazzera (Eni)
Andrea Volponi (Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane)
Daniele Filippone (Fincantieri)
Giovanni Ginocchini (Fondazione Pietro Giacomo Rusconi, Villa Ghigi, per l’Innovazione Urbana)
Luigi Terracciano (Humanitas)
Marco Becca (iFAB)
Stefania Bergamaschi (Intesa Sanpaolo)
Maurizio Stumbo (Sogei)
Luca Orrù (Terna)
Carlo Ciancarelli (Thales Alenia Space)
Renzo Giovanni Avesani (UnipolSai)
Andrea Scognamiglio (Enel)

Ethics and Data Governance Board
Chair – Luciano Floridi
Co-chair – Antonino Rotolo
Paolo Benanti
Giusella Finocchiaro
Giulia Galli
Giuseppe Francesco Italiano
Marialuisa Lavitrano
Francesca Medda
Mariarosaria Taddeo