Migal: Slovakia Faced Risk of Losing Funding for Perun Supercomputer

Bratislava, April 15 (TASR) - There was a risk that Slovakia could have lost funding for the Perun supercomputer project, which the Joint Activities Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (CSC SAV) in Bratislava aims to launch by the end of this year, with a total investment from the Recovery and Resilience Plan of €40 million, Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation Minister Samuel Migal (Independent) and president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Pavol Sajgalik announced at a press conference on Tuesday. "Science and research are key to Slovakia's future. Without them, we cannot fully advance in the digital age. The new leadership of the ministry has done everything possible to make sure that this supercomputer project will see the light of day,” said Migal, adding that the former ministry leadership had no interest in carrying out the project, which could have resulted in Slovakia losing EU funds tied to the recovery plan. According to Sajgalik, the launch of this supercomputer will strengthen national computing infrastructure, contribute towards meeting goals outlined in the European digital transformation, create space for research and technological innovation, and make the Slovak economy more competitive. “There was a risk that the Slovak Academy of Sciences would not be able to manage such infrastructure, but we invested a significant amount of resources to prepare everything necessary to make the installation possible. We've already invested nearly one million euros in this project. It's not just about losing the funds; it's about losing the opportunity to install such a major project on the premises of the Slovak Academy of Sciences," added Sajgalik. The supercomputer is expected to be available not only to the Slovak scientific community but also to organisations, public administrations and businesses in Slovakia. SAV intends to cooperate with the private sector, as such partnerships could lead to innovative new projects that would support the Slovak economy. The implementation of the supercomputer project has been underway since 2023. A contract has now been signed with Eviden Slovakia, a company that provides services in the field of high-performance computing technologies. The system is suitable for a wide range of applications, from materials science, computational physics and chemistry and engineering applications to bioinformatics and artificial intelligence applications. mf/df