Dear Reader!

We are happy to announce that the first FFplus Business Experiments and Innovation Studies have been officially introduced to the public!

Through the first Open Call, 37 sub-projects received funding — 18 Innovation Studies and 19 Business Experiments. 

The 19 funded sub-projects consist of a total of 43 organisations, including 34 SMEs and 9 other organisations from 15 countries, with Italy and Greece leading the field in the number of selected proposals containing participants from their countries.

The 18 funded sub-projects involve a total of 36 organisations, including 20 SMEs and 16 other organisations from 14 countries, with Germany and Italy leading the field in the number of selected proposals consist of participants from their countries.

Subprojects have already started with the execution of their work. Innovation Studies have a duration of up to 10 months, while Business Experiments can last up to 15 months. 

All subprojects are now presented on the FFplus website and will be presented through the FFplus LinkedIn profile.

Learn more! 

Business Experiments

Innovation Studies 

An interview reflecting on a decade of Fortissimo was published in Futurities magazine

Dr. Eng. Bastian Koller, Managing Director of HLRS, and Dr. Guy Lonsdale, CEO of scapos, took part in an insightful interview for the Futurities Magazine, reflecting on the long and successful decade of the Fortissimo project. They also highlighted FFplus — the fourth instalment of the Fortissimo initiative, which supports SMEs and startups by providing funding to help them adopt HPC and generative AI technologies in their business operations.

Read the article here.

FFplus Open Call Lead, Dr Guy Lonsdale, CEO of scapos, talked with Christopher Williams from HLRS, discussing the changing Face of the Fortissimo project.

Read the article here.

FFplus Open Call #2 Is Coming Soon!

We are very excited to make a pre-announcement of the upcoming Open Call!

The approximate timeline:

Type 1: Business Experiments addressing the uptake of HPC by SMEs:

Call opens in late Q2-2025

Type 2: Innovation Studies for the Development of Generative AI Models:

Call opens in late Q3-2025

Fortissimo and the Bigger Picture: Connecting with EuroHPC and EuroCC 2

The FFplus project continues the successful Fortissimo series (Fortissimo, Fortissimo 2, FF4EuroHPC), which aims to support European SMEs and startups in utilising High-Performance Computing (HPC), High-Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise or develop their products or processes. Based on the EuroHPC JU’s strategy, FFplus’ goal is to strengthen the global competitiveness of the European industry. But what is that strategy and how does it relate to its bigger brother EuroCC2?

Read the blog post here.

Meet us!

FFplus partners are actively participating in various events. If you’re attending any of the events listed below, feel free to stop by and say hello!

ASHPC25 Conference: 19 May 2025 - 22. May 2025, Rimske Terme, Slovenia

Nafems World Congress: 19-22 May 2025, Salzburg, Austria

EUROCCSEE Workshop: 20-22 May 2025, Belgrade, Serbia

Teratec Forum: 21-22 May 2025, Paris, France

ISC25: 10. June 2025 - 13 June 2025, Hamburg, Germany