The Associazione Big Data (Italian Big Data Association – ABD) promotes fast access to HPC supercomputing facilities owned and managed by the members of the Association for projects that aim to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The members of the Association that joined the action, CINECA (Consorzio Interuniversitario per il Calcolo Automatico), CMCC (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici), ENEA (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile), INFN-CNAF (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), represent almost the whole HPC capability at national level.
The identification of new therapeutic practices, the study of viral antibodies, the knowledge of the molecular structure of the virus and its mutations, the preparation of an effective vaccine are strongly based on in silico research and development methods, as well as the elaboration of the diffusion and containment models of the epidemic. For this reason the ABD is welcoming project proposals requesting computing resources to contribute to the mitigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
8 million core hours will be available on the most powerful supercomputing systems available in Italy. Researchers of all nationalities, with affiliation to both public and private Italian institutions can submit research projects. Projects can be submitted using the web portal ISCRA DB
In non-exhaustive terms, since there is no disciplinary limit, the following topics are referred to by way of example:
- Biomolecular research
- Biochemistry research
- Bioinformatics research
- Bio-simulations
- Epidemiologic analysis
- Mitigation the impact of the pandemic
The action is ready for a continuous project submission and each project will be immediately evaluated by a panel of experts appointed by the ABD board of directors.
This call is open until further notice. Applications are evaluated by minimum of two experts within next business day and start as soon as possible if awarded.