Building Better HPC Support Together: Highlights from the EPICURE Annual Meeting 2026

The EPICURE consortium gathered in Krakow on 24–25 March 2026 for an annual project meeting to reflect on progress during the second year of the project, align priorities, and define the next steps for the project’s development. While catching up with colleagues in a relaxed environment, the aim of the event was to ensure EPICURE services continue to become more effective, responsive, and valuable for the users we support.

 

 

Reflecting on progress in year two

 

The meeting opened with a high-level overview of the second year of the EPICURE project. During the second year of the project, cross-work package collaboration and improved internal coordination have strengthened the services EPICURE offers for users. These efforts have helped to make the EPICURE support easier to access and more responsive to user needs. With better-connected teams and clearer processes, the project is now delivering expertise, training, and resources in a more coherent and user‑focused way. The highlights from the second year of the project included, for example, 35 successfully ported or optimised codes, the launch of the European HPC Application Support Portal and an increased number of technical content published in the Knowledge base. In total, EPICURE has supported over 90 completed or ongoing projects during the first two years.

 

Work package leaders also presented updates on their progress during the second year of the project, topical issues and plans for the upcoming months and years. To make our technical work more visible and impactful to a wider range of users and to increase the number of high-quality outputs for the community, cross-work package cooperation is planned. Furthermore, the next steps of the project were discussed in dedicated sessions during which work package leaders collected inputs from participants for further development.

 

 

 

Looking ahead: priorities for the next project phase

 

Group discussion sessions focused on concrete actions to further improve the project’s implementation. These discussions helped identify practical opportunities to simplify our processes and to better tailor EPICURE’s communications to the needs of different user groups. These discussions also created a shared understanding across the consortium of where improvements are most needed and where collective efforts can have the greatest impact.

 

For many potential users, the most visible touchpoints beyond the direct support are the Knowledge Base and EPICURE’s training activities, both of which were highlighted as areas with strong potential for further development. Therefore, one important topic was the continuous development of the European HPC Application Support Portal. The focus moving forward is to expand the portfolio of high‑quality training materials, Knowledge Base content, and user support resources, while ensuring they remain closely aligned with real user needs.

 

Looking ahead, the consortium also explored which types of events would be most effective for reaching users and strengthening engagement in the coming years. Further development of training events, such as hackathons, webinars and workshops, is a central pillar of EPICURE’s outreach efforts. These formats not only support skills development but also provide valuable opportunities for direct interaction between users and experts. By steadily expanding the training programme and adapting topics based on user feedback, EPICURE aims to reach a broader audience and further develop the overall know-how and expertise of the HPC community.

We want to warmly thank Cyfronet for their help with organizing the practicalities of this meeting and all participants for insightful conversations!