Presidents Meloni and Metsola visit the DAMA Technopole in Bologna

The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola visited today, May 27, the large Supercomputing hub at the DAMA Technopole in Bologna, where the data center of the CNAF National Computing Center of INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics), the Leonardo supercomputer of the CINECA consortium, financed by the Ministry of University and Research and EuroHPC JU, and the National Research Center in HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing ICSC are located, in addition to other important computing centers such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Antonio Zoccoli, President of INFN and ICSC: “It was an honor to welcome and accompany Presidents Giorgia Meloni and Roberta Metsola at our computing center, and we thank them for their visit. Here in Italy, at the DAMA Technopole in Bologna, we have one of the largest and most powerful computing centers in Europe, and we are working to make it the first: an excellence of national research and technology, becoming one of the main international infrastructures for big data management, high-performance computing, and research and development in artificial intelligence. Implementing a project of this scale, a reference center for Europe that can thus be a leader in the sector, was made possible because Italy had vision: the Ministry of University and Research and Minister Anna Maria Bernini are strongly supporting, with significant investments—both through PNRR funds and research infrastructure financing—the national strategy on supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, of which the establishment of the ICSC National Center and now the creation of the new AI Factory are examples.”

Francesco Ubertini, President of CINECA: “The visit of Presidents Meloni and Metsola, whom I sincerely thank, highlights the attention of Italian and European institutions towards a strategic infrastructure aimed at strengthening European leadership in supercomputing. I had the honor of accompanying them on a visit to the CINECA Leonardo supercomputer, one of the most powerful computers in the world for artificial intelligence applications, and we discussed the near future and Italy’s role. At the Technopole, in fact, we will begin work in July to enhance Leonardo, called Lisa; in September, two quantum computers will arrive; and in December, the supercomputer of the IT4LIA AI Factory – Italy for Artificial Intelligence – one of the two major European AI Factories. This is an unprecedented overall investment in the history of CINECA and Italian supercomputing, made possible thanks to the strategy and support of Minister Anna Maria Bernini, with MUR funding of over 300 million, which will increase our computational power for artificial intelligence by 25 times compared to Leonardo’s current capacity, allowing us to remain globally competitive.”