D2.5: Updated Stakeholder Management in PRACE 2

This deliverable updates the analysis of the stakeholder management performed by PRACE-4IP project within the context of the transition from “PRACE 1” to “PRACE 2”. PRACE 2, the second phase of the pan-European Research Infrastructure (RI) took over from PRACE agreement for the Initial Period - so-called PRACE 1 - for the 2017 - 2020 period. A first analysis has been documented within a previous deliverable issued in February 2017, but since then major initiatives have moved forward, that will reshape the European HPC ecosystem: the main ones are the European Data Initiative (EDI), the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the EuroHPC initiative. This deliverable will complete previous analysis in light of the changes these new initiatives could have on our relationship with our stakeholders. This work follows analyses of stakeholder management, performed within PRACE Preparatory Phase project (PRACE-PP) in 2008, and the update within PRACE-3IP project in 2014. Whereas previous deliverables were focused on identification of core stakeholders of the project and on the legal aspect of relationship with other entities, this one is focused on the evolution of the HPC ecosystem. This could be summarised as a global race to Exascale (potentially available at the beginning of next decade). And everybody around the world is accelerating pace on that race (at least for USA, China and Japan, that decided to afford the huge cost of tools, considered more strategic than ever). Recent evolutions of the European ecosystem are taking shape as well, with the three pillars of the European Commission (EC) strategy for High Performance Computing (HPC) – infrastructures, technologies, applications. Within the global framework of a Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy for Europe, announced by the EC in April 2016, we explore how the (on-going) EOSC initiatives will impact our way to engage with our stakeholders. The definition of “rules of engagement” to EOSC will define how PRACE services would/could be understood by our users, and offer new ways to engage with emerging communities of HPC users. We also provide early analysis on potential services provided by EDI and on how the different options for a Governance structure of EDI could impact our relations with our stakeholders, especially with GÉANT, in the context of building a world-class converged pan-European HPC, Big-Data, network and Cloud Ecosystem. Links with various categories of stakeholders are described and commented – other compute infrastructures in Europe or worldwide, different kinds of European projects or initiatives (flagships, other kinds of research infrastructures, H2020 projects etc.); user communities including new or emerging areas; funding agencies and policy makers; SMEs for which PRACE SHAPE programme offered an HPC adoption strong support. The latest MoUs signed between PRACE RI or PRACE projects and these partners are reminded, a complete list of them is provided in the Annex