Dear Reader!
Summer in Full Swing – and So Is FFplus!
While many are taking a well-deserved summer break, the FFplus team is hard at work driving innovation forward. The first 37 FFplus sub-projects are progressing steadily, integrating HPC and/or AI into their workflows to transform bold ideas into impactful, real-world solutions.
A key milestone this season is the launch of the second Open Call for Business Experiments, which opened in early June and remains active until August 26th. This call offers new opportunities for SMEs—especially those with no prior HPC experience—to tackle pressing business challenges with the support of cutting-edge digital tools.
But that’s not all! We’re also gearing up to announce the second Open Call for Innovation Studies, aimed at SMEs and Start-ups already working with generative AI and requiring access to large- to extreme-scale HPC resources.
Stay tuned!
FFplus Webinars Highlighted Opportunities in FFplus Open Call for Business Experiments
The FFplus partners delivered three informative webinars to promote and explain the FFplus Open Call 2 for Business Experiments, offering SMEs across Europe a chance to benefit from funding and access to high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.
To support interested applicants, the FFplus team has made the following materials available here:
FFplus Open Call 2 for Business Experiments Webinar Video
Presentation Slides
Open Call Info Page
Info about EuroHPC JU Access Schemes and Calls
Fortissimo Success Stories
Key Open Call Details
Call offered to SMEs and startups from Europe and Horizon Europe-eligible countries that have had no prior use of, or experience with, HPC services.
Consortium includes up to 5 partners (including one SME and 1–4 supporting partners such as SMEs or public/research institutions).
Funding available: up to €200,000 per proposal (covering all participants).
Submission deadline: August 26th, 2025, 17:00 CET.
More information is available here.
SMEs, Receive Support from the Nearest National Competence Center!
Need Support for your FFplus proposal application?
Whether you're:
Developing an innovative idea
Searching for partners to support your sub-project
Looking for guidance on your FFplus proposal content
Unsure which hardware or software best fits your use case
Planning to apply for the EuroHPC JU Access Calls
…your nearest National Competence Center (NCC) is here to help!
NCCs offer expert advice, technical support, and access to a wide network of HPC and AI resources tailored to your needs. Don’t hesitate to reach out and take advantage of their support! Find your nearest NCC here.
Business Experiments and Innovation Studies Have Been Introduced to the Public
Through the first Open Call, 37 sub-projects received funding — 18 Innovation Studies and 19 Business Experiments. All subprojects are now presented on the FFplus website and will be presented through the FFplus LinkedIn profile.
Learn more about Business Experiments
Learn more about Innovation Studies
A FF4EuroHPC Success Story “High-Fidelity CFD Workflow for Optimizing Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems” was published in the latest Futurities magazine
Oceanwings, a French SME, develops Oceanwings® — an articulated wingsail system that significantly reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for maritime transport. To optimize Oceanwings® for various vessel types and sizes, Oceanwings needed a high-fidelity aerodynamic evaluation method scalable across numerous configurations. Traditional CFD tools posed limits in terms of licensing cost, workflow automation, and scalability.
Within the FF4EuroHPC experiment, a new OpenFOAM-based workflow was developed in collaboration with PoliMi, CINECA, and ToolsPole. The solution integrated a custom command-line interface to automate large-scale CFD simulations on HPC systems. This replaced GUI-based processes with a fully scriptable, batch-oriented system.
Meet FFPlus Partners at events!
Over the past month, FFplus partners have actively participated in and organised several events and meetings.
On June 26th & 27th, the consortium gathered in Milan, Italy, for a productive all-hands meeting, reflecting on progress so far and planning the next steps.
On Tuesday, 8 July, the FFplus consortium gathered in Luxembourg for the project's first review — which was successfully passed.
At this year’s ISC25 conference in Hamburg, taking place 10-13 June, Tina Črnigoj Marc, FFplus Communication Lead and Project Manager at Arctur, took the stage at the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) booth to present the FFplus project and its Second Open Call for Business Experiments.
FFplus was present at Startup Summit BW 2025 on June 2 through representation in the Ecosystem-Area at the Internationalisierungs-booth, together with FFplus partner HLRS/HammerHAI.
On Tuesday, 1 July 2025, the Fortissimo/FFplus community gathered online for a dynamic one-hour webinar titled "Discover Real HPC Business Impact for SMEs", organised by partner TERATEC. Have a look at the webinar video here.
On Thursday, 17 July 2025, NCC Italy hosted an insightful webinar titled "Best Practices for a Successful FFplus Proposal", aimed at equipping National Competence Centres (NCCs) and their SME stakeholders with practical tools and strategies to enhance their FFplus project applications.
The SSC-Services GmbH Summerfest AI 2.0 took place in Stuttgart on July 17th. FFplus Coordinator Dr. Bastian Koller (HLRS - High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart) presented FFplus project and the Open Call.
FFplus partners will actively participate in the upcoming events. We are very open to talking to you! Come by and say hello!
1. Open Call-2 for Innovation Study Webinars (September, tbd)
2. EuroHPC User Days 2025, 1 October, Copenhagen - Denmark
3. NCC Germany meeting 2nd SIDE Forum – Supercomputing in Deutschland, 21 October, Stuttgart- Germany
4. SLING DAYS, 20-21 November, Ljubljana - Slovenia
Success Stories: Inspiring Industry on the Path to Innovation
Success stories explain how SMEs addressed real business challenges and developed solutions with the help of HPC, showcasing the clear business benefits and impacts of adopting HPC in their operations.
The use of HPC makes it possible to tackle a computational problem Italian SME GTS met during its service for recovering plastic litter in the sea: optimising the plastic litter recovery strategy, forecasting the position of hundreds of detritus floating in the sea with suitable accuracy in space and time.
Protecting seas and oceans against litter is becoming a global concern and there is a growing need worldwide for more efficient, clean and autonomous technologies to identify and collect marine detritus, especially plastics, in a systematic and repetitive way.
Watch the success story video.
Perfect Summer Reading: Let the Fortissimo Success Stories Inspire You!
Within the Fortissimo projects, 121 success stories were produced in collaboration with 310 partners from more than 20 European countries.
The publication of success stories from the experiments, showing the benefits and impacts of adopting HPC in the SMEs business models, and from the innovation studies, showing the business benefits of adopting large-scale HPC resources for the development of generative AI, will take place during the project duration.
Let´s Stay Connected!
Ensure you don't miss any valuable information about the open call, events, success stories, and topics related to HPC and AI. Follow FFplus on social media.