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Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH ACK Cyfronet AGH
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Research Projects

From the beginning, ACC Cyfronet AGH has been working with partners from Poland and abroad. Openness to cooperation in conditions of trust and reliable performance of assigned tasks have become one of the foundations of our operation. Based on continuously developed competencies, equipment base and relationships, Cyfronet constantly participates in many scientific and research projects, both nationally and internationally. Thus, it effectively intensifies the development of international cooperation in science and new technologies.

In this area, it is essential to emphasise Cyfronet's activity in projects of the 5th, 6th and 7th EU Framework Programmes, as well as the H2020, Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, including the prestigious and largest European activities in the field of building IT infrastructure for science, especially concerning cloud, petascale and quantum computing resources and resources for open science - from the group of EuroHPC (including LUMI), EOSC and PRACE projects.

The research conducted at Cyfronet focuses on the efficient use of computing and disk resources, the application of artificial intelligence in science and cloud environments, and the development of advanced IT tools to support medicine and virtual environments for working on data.

The following description presents the selected main thematic groups of projects implemented by Cyfronet:

Grid environments

Many years of cooperation between ACC Cyfronet AGH, the Department of Computer Science of AGH (now the Faculty of Computer Science) and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the development of an environment for large-scale computations for particle physics resulted in Cyfronet becoming the coordinator of the CrossGrid project (2002-2005). It involved 21 partners from 11 countries, aiming to implement and deploy a range of interactive applications in a distributed computing environment. CrossGrid's success and the relationships and experience gained in this project enabled Cyfronet to participate in many subsequent projects during the 6th and 7th EU Framework Programmes. Thanks to these projects, ACC Cyfronet AGH, DCS AGH and INP PAN have significantly expanded their research topics and increased the number of foreign partners.

From 2009 to 2012, Cyfronet coordinated the PL-Grid project, which aimed to build the Polish Computational Infrastructure (the PLGrid infrastructure). Subsequently, the Centre coordinated the PLGrid Plus (2011-2014) and PLGrid NG (2014-2015) projects, whose tasks included continuing the development of this infrastructure and preparing dedicated domain services for groups of researchers representing many different scientific disciplines. As a result, Cyfronet was declared a National Centre of Competence for distributed computing infrastructures. This was confirmed when ACC Cyfronet AGH was awarded funding for another project, PLGrid Core (2014-2015). This project aimed to develop the infrastructure's capabilities for, among other things, cloud and big data computing. One of the project's key outcomes was the launch of the Prometheus supercomputer at the Centre, which was the fastest in Poland for six years.

ACC Cyfronet AGH is a member of the EGI (European Grid Initiative) federation, which was established to provide advanced computing services for scientific research. As a result, users grouped in EGI Virtual Organisations, especially those associated with large international ESFRI research projects, can use the resources provided by Cyfronet.

Large-scale processing

Cyfronet is active in producing and providing solutions for processing big data in various spheres of science and economy. This includes both the development of the physical infrastructure and the IT tools that ensure its effective use.

Cyfronet participates in the PRACE programme - Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe. PRACE activities are realised, among others, by making world-class resources and services in data processing and management available. Based on PRACE activities, the PRACE-LAB project was established in Poland, with the primary objective of developing computing infrastructure and data storage services. One of the products of the project's activities is the Ares supercomputer installed in Cyfronet.

Noteworthy among the large-scale computing projects are MAPPER, which aimed to create computational strategies, services and software to support large-scale simulations across multiple scientific disciplines, and PROCESS, a step towards developing innovative exascale data processing services.

Cyfronet has also been developing cloud ‘ecosystems’ for years, both based on available open-source tools and proprietary technologies. In this respect, the projects INDIGO-DataCloud, XDC-Extreme Data Cloud and DOME are worth noting.

PIONIER network

ACC Cyfronet AGH is a member of the PIONIER Consortium, established in 2003 to maintain and develop the PIONIER fibre-optic network, which is a vital component of the IT infrastructure for science in Poland and an element of the European Research Area (ERA). Over the years, the PIONIER network ecosystem has been developed in several infrastructure projects in which Cyfronet actively participated. The most important of these are: NewMAN, 100net, PLATON, and MAN-HA, followed by PIONIER-LAB, PRACE-LAB, KMD and PIONIER-Q. In addition, ACC Cyfronet AGH is one of the more important nodes of the PIONIER network.

IT for medicine

For several years, Cyfronet specialists have been leading and participating in projects concerning the development of IT tools for medicine, with a particular focus on medical diagnostics, medical decision support and personalised medicine. Starting in 2006, when the ViroLab project began, this activity has consistently remained one of Cyfronet's fundamental research and development areas. Subsequent projects included VPH-Share, EurValve, Gliomed, which addressed cancer diagnostics (implemented as part of the strategic research and development programme ‘Prevention and treatment of civilisation diseases - STRATEGMED’), and CECM - Centre of Excellence for New Computational Diagnostics and Personalised Therapy. The experience gained resulted in establishing a foundation and creating Sano - Centre for Personalised Computational Medicine in 2019. The centre will be a key driver of European progress in this fast-growing sector, developing advanced engineering methods for disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment and meeting the global need for radically improved healthcare systems. The latest projects, Edith and GEMINI, are concerned with developing so-called ‘digital twins’ - multi-scale computational models to facilitate diagnosis and enable more informed medical decision-making.

Development of the Earth sciences

The EPOS project is a programme for integrating research infrastructures for the multidisciplinary study of phenomena occurring in the Earth's crust. EPOS aims to facilitate an understanding of Earth's dynamics and tectonic processes based on seismological, satellite, geological, petrochemical and laboratory data analysis. Cyfronet participates in a series of EPOS-building projects (SERA, EPOS IP, EPOS SP, EPOS ERIC, EPOS PL, EPOS PL+, EPOS TCS AH PL, Geo-INQUIRE), with particular emphasis on activities within the Thematic Core Services Anthropogenic Hazard (TCS AH) node.

In turn, as part of the Sat4Envi project, Cyfronet participated in constructing an Operational System for collecting, sharing and promoting digital satellite environmental information. The Sat4Envi project has opened a new chapter for making optimal decisions on spatial planning and rapid response in case of environmental threats.

Open Science

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is an initiative to create a virtual environment that fulfils the Open Science paradigm. The EOSC is intended to make available easily and transparently not only scientific data but also advanced tools and resources for storing, sharing, processing and managing them. Cyfronet has participated and continues participating in a series of projects building the EOSC: EOSC-Hub, EOSC Enhance, EOSC Synergy, EOSC Future, FAIRCORE4EOSC and EOSC Beyond.

In support of open science, projects on the border between science and art have also been established: PAUArt and Eureka3D, aimed at digitising cultural assets.

EuroHPC Joint Undertaking

Poland is a European Large-Scale Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) member. Under its aegis, the LUMI consortium was established, which funded and launched the LUMI supercomputer. Thanks to competitions organised by Cyfronet and through the PLGrid infrastructure, Polish scientists gain access to the supercomputer's computing power.

The Polish element of the EuroHPC JU initiative was the national EuroHPC PL project, of which Cyfronet was the coordinator. The project resulted in the creation and improvement of many technologies, including the effective use of quantum computers. The main product of the project is the Helios supercomputer.

ACC Cyfronet AGH is also the leader of the Polish National HPC Competence Centre, which was established within the EuroHPC JU. National Competence Centres (NCCs) are the focal points for HPC and related technologies in their respective countries. Their mission is to improve and equalise European advanced computing capabilities and provide access to infrastructure and expertise.

In addition to the direct effects of the projects, Cyfronet's participation in undertakings and projects of international or national scope has also brought many other benefits:

  • introduction of new promising information technologies,
  • combining in the PLGrid infrastructure the resources installed in various computer centres in Poland and integrating them into the European infrastructure,
  • significant expansion of international cooperation by enhancing substantive contacts, participation in plenary and technical meetings and joint publications,
  • creation of effective virtual working environments for users participating in national and international research activities,
  • exchange of experience and good practices with partners from other centres,

Participation in projects funded by the European Union is considered an essential element of Cyfronet's, and more broadly, Poland's scientific community's activities due to the benefits of technology transfer, development of international cooperation and education of young staff.