Vice-President of the European Commission visited the University of Minho to see the Deucalion supercomputer

On November 10, European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen paid an official visit to the Azurém Campus of the University of Minho to see the Deucalion supercomputer—the largest advanced computing infrastructure in Portugal.

The visit was attended by João Nuno Ferreira, vice president of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), as well as representatives from the European Commission in Portugal, the Northern Region Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), the Municipality of Guimarães, and the University of Minho. This meeting reinforced the commitment between the European Union and Portugal to the development of advanced computing resources, underlining the importance of collaboration between national and European institutions to accelerate digital transformation.

Funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) through measure RE-C05-i08 (More Digital Science), Deucalion is a national collaborative infrastructure that enables national and European projects to be promoted in order to respond to challenges in science, innovation, and society. It is operated by the National Center for Advanced Computing (CNCA), in partnership with FCT, INESC TEC, and the University of Minho. It is also part of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) network, consolidating Portugal's position in the European high-performance computing network.

During the visit, Deucalion's strategic role in strengthening the country's scientific and technological capacity was highlighted, supporting innovative solutions in critical areas such as artificial intelligence, health, energy, climate, and industry.