It is the most active center of this program, as part of six groups in emerging technologies that will receive ERDF funds.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) will coordinate two out of the nine projects that will receive funding from European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), through the Pla Acció of the research and innovation strategy for smart specialization in Catalunya, RIS3CAT. This is the DRAC project, consisting of accelerator design based on RISC-V technology for the next generation computers, and FusionCAT, on the generation of fusion energy. Apart from leading these two projects, the BSC will participate as a partner in four more projects, making it the center with the most representation of all emerging technology groupings.
DRAC "Designing RISK-V-based Accelerators for next generation Computers (DRAC)" is a grouping to design, verify, implement and manufacture a general purpose processor with accelerators based on RISC-V technology and with specific applications in the field of Safety, genomics and autonomous driving. In addition, the technology developed in DRAC will be compatible with the designs that are being developed in the European Processor Initiative (EPI) project. DRAC also participates in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV).
FusionCAT is another project coordinated by the BSC, and it means to be an active nuclear fusion group in Catalunya, which aims to obtain sustainable, safe and low-carbon energy sources, with a reliable and predictable generation of base load. In the long term, the purpose is to pave the way for the construction and start-up of a nuclear fusion plant in Catalunya, which would arrive in the second half of this century. This consortium also intends to establish the knowledge transfer of the institutions associated with the industry to develop industrial skills in Catalunya and achieve fusion energy. The institutions involved, apart from the BSC, are the UPC, the Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), the Institut de Ciència dels Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB), the Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya (IREC), the EURECAT and the Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC).
BSC also participates in the Human Brain Emerging Cluster (CECH) project, which aims to achieve an integrative and multilevel understanding of the human brain, to promote new knowledge and technological tools in collaboration with social and industrial agents from different sectors (clinical, educational and technological). It is coordinated by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).
In the section on personalized medicine, the BSC is part of the EGA Valorization for Industry and Society (VEIS) consortium, which, coordinated by the UPF, brings together the main centers of bioinformatics and computational biology. This consortium will create an open ecosystem of technologies, connected to the main computing tools, which will allow access to genomic data and facilitate the analysis of information in biomedicine projects.
The QuantumCAT program, coordinated by ICFO and in which the BSC focuses on the area of quantum computing, aims to boost the development of quantum technologies to integrate them into today's industry, foster synergies between the different pillars of quantum technology in Catalonia and consolidate the position of Catalonia as a reference in this sector. In addition, I2CAT, UPC, UAB and the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2) also participate.
Finally, the FEM IOT project (Fostering the Emerging Market of Internet of Things) wants to boost the emerging sector of the Internet of Things. In this sense, it is intended to provide the infrastructure of the city of intelligence through IOT solutions, which will allow the development of the smartcities sector (formed by urban furniture companies, urban services, energy and technology consultants). In addition, one of the most demanding use cases for the city will be included, which is the autonomous and connected vehicle, contributing to one of the country's leading industries: mobility. This project is led by the i2CAT and has the participation of the BSC, the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), the UPC, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the URV, the Computer Vision Center (CVC), EURECAT, Leitat, IREC and CIMNE.
The emerging technologies program promotes the development of new emerging activities in Catalunya, based on innovative or disruptive technologies or processes that aim to open new markets or transform existing ones.
