The Advanced Computing Consortium for Excellence in Science (ACCESS) unites 16 Portuguese Higher Education Institutions – universities, polytechnics, and research centres – to build competences in High Performance Computing (HPC), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Computing (QC), High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA), and High Performance Visualization (HPV) through ERASMUS+ mobility activities
Consortium Members
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- Universidade de Évora – Consortium Leader
- Universidade dos Açores
- Universidade do Algarve
- Universidade de Aveiro
- Universidade da Beira Interior
- Universidade de Coimbra
- Universidade de Lisboa
- Universidade da Madeira
- Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
- Universidade dos Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
- Iscte – Instituto Universitario de Lisboa
- Instituto Politécnico de Beja
- Instituto Politécnico de Leiria
- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores-ID – INESC-ID
- Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil – LNEC
- Portuguese Quantum Institute – PQI
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Objectives
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- (A) Train Portuguese stab at European supercomputing centres, research institutions, and enterprises;
- (B) transfer knowledge through Portuguese lecturers teaching at European HEIs;
- (C) provide student traineeships at European institutions with HPC and AI expertise;
- (D) train European students through Blended Intensive Programs at Portuguese partner institutions with access to supercomputers and AI clusters.
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Main Activities
Staff Mobility for Training (STT) at BSC-CNS (Spain), CINECA (Italy), CSC (Finland), JSC (Germany), and other European facilities; Staff Mobility for Teaching (STA) at European partner HEIs; Student Mobility for Traineeships (SMP) at research organizations and enterprises; Blended Intensive Programs (BIPs) with online preparation and hands-on training using Portuguese supercomputers (OBLIVION at U.Évora, Navigator at U.Coimbra), AI clusters, and visualization facilities. Nine Work Packages cover parallel computing, HPDA, AI/ML, visualization, programming, system administration, quantum computing, and internal knowledge transfer among partners.
Results and Impact
Participants gain competences in HPC, AI, QC, and HPV recognized through Europass Mobility and institutional certification, improving career prospects in research, industry, and public administration. The Consortium positions member institutions as national and European players in advanced computing, in coordination with EuroCC2, EuroCC3, and EuroHPC JU. Training materials, technical reports, and scientific publications reach the community through the Consortium portal, PRACE Training portal, and EuroCC network. By pooling supercomputer facilities, teaching materials, and international partnerships, the Consortium delivers results that individual HEIs could not achieve alone, accelerating adoption of HPC, Big Data, AI, and quantum technologies in Portuguese academia, industry, and public administration.