Dr. Aleksandar Tošić, InnoRenew CoE and University of Primorska researcher, and Dr. Jernej Vičič from University of Primorska, were involved in the successful preparation of the project for acquiring a supercomputer.

Slovenia won an European tender for a high-performance supercomputer. It achieved the highest score among the applicants and the project was widely praised. IZUM Director Aleš Bošnjak believes that Slovenia’s success in the tender is due to the fact that Slovenia was the first of the eight applicants in the tender to set up a supercomputer in 2021. He also believes that the competencies and synergies of the project partners were an important factor. The application for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking tender for a high-performance supercomputer with an artificial intelligence factory was submitted by the Maribor-based Institute of Information Sciences (Izum) with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation on behalf of a consortium of organizations including the Jožef Stefan Institute, Arnes, the University of Maribor, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Nova Gorica, the University of Primorska, the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto, the Ljubljana Technology Park and the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Dr. Tošić said: »The acquisition of the project is of great importance for the development of Slovenian science, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. The UP Department of Information Science and Technology will now have access to hardware for complex calculations that we are currently unable to perform. VEGA 2 is now allowing Slovenian researchers to conduct more extensive research and the development of their own GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformers) models, which has not been possible so far. In addition to scientific research, the project will provide an important link with industry by enabling wider use of supercomputing capabilities.«