Advanced computing for EOSC (EGI-ACE) project passes EC review with flying colours

The EGI-ACE project ended in the first half of 2023 and was praised by the reviewers during the recent EC review. One of its greatest highlights was the cloud integration programme that enabled the onboarding of the Hungarian scientific cloud into EOSC (European Open Science Cloud), resulting in a fully interoperable compute and storage system for data-intensive science within this new European e-infrastructure.

This June, the annual EGI conference showcased the main outcomes of the 30-month-long EGI-ACE project. One of the project's key achievements was the cloud integration programme, offering the possibility to national research clouds and commercial public clouds to federate their capacity into the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) Compute Platform and to join the European cloud federation that supports Open Science.

HUN-REN SZTAKI was among the trailblazers who participated in this integration programme and connected the Hungarian research cloud to the European availability-reliability monitor, usage accounting, authentication-authorisation and helpdesk systems of EGI. Interoperability was also achieved with the scientific application and scientific data federation layers of EGI-ACE, resulting in added value services for Hungarian researchers in national and international R&D projects. Thanks to the integration Hungarian researchers are now supported with datasets and applications made available by scientists in EOSC and can also participate in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to support international research projects that require high-capacity compute-storage systems for their data-intensive applications. The first international research project that the Hungarian cloud supports is the “Automated, Transparent Citizen-Centric Public Policy Making based on Trusted Artificial Intelligence” (AI4PublicPolicy), which aims to enable policy development/management functionalities based on big data and AI technologies such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NLP and chatbots while leveraging citizens’ participation and feedback.

At the EGI Conference, HUN-REN SZTAKI’s deputy director and HUN-REN Cloud’s(previously known as ELKH Cloud) project director Róbert Lovas gave a presentation about the “ELKH Cloud milestones towards EGI, EOSC and ESFRI”, showcasing how the Hungarian national cloud was formed, further developed and integrated into the international cloud ecosystem in the recent years.