EuroHPC AI Factories - free access for academic AI research
Source: https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/ai-factories/ai-factories-access-modes_en
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+ 1 EuroHPC AI Factories offer free access to European supercomputers (LUMI, Discoverer, MareNostrum5, Leonardo and others) for AI training, fine-tuning, and inference. There are two tracks: an Industrial Innovation track (Playground / Fast Lane / Large Scale) free for AI SMEs and startups, and an AI for Science and Collaborative Projects track free for publicly funded research (academia, public sector, EU-funded consortia).
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+ 3 No credits or money change hands — you apply through a single EuroHPC portal, get judged on technical fit (not commercial viability or VC backing), and receive a wallclock allocation in GPU hours on one EuroHPC system.
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+ 9 You are...Use this trackCost
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+ 10 AI startup / SME (any size) testing the platformPlaygroundFree
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+ 11 AI startup / SME with HPC experience, ≤50K GPU-h projectFast LaneFree
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+ 12 AI startup / SME, >50K GPU-h projectLarge ScaleFree
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+ 13 Other industrial user (not AI SME/startup)Industrial tracksPay-per-use
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+ 14 University / PhD / postdoc / research instituteAI for Science & Collaborative ProjectsFree
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+ 15 Public-sector organizationAI for Science & Collaborative ProjectsFree
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+ 16 Horizon Europe / Digital Europe consortiumAI for Science & Collaborative ProjectsFree
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+ 17
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+ 18 Important: Academia and public sector users are explicitly redirected to the AI for Science track — they cannot use the industrial Playground/Fast Lane/Large Scale modes.
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+ 24 Entry-level mode for new HPC users — meant for testing and experimentation.
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+ 25
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+ 26 • GPU hours: Limited (small allocations, exact cap not published — depends on the hosting AI Factory)
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+ 27 • Allocation duration: 1, 2 or 3 months
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+ 28 • Eligibility (free): AI SMEs and startups; new / entry-level HPC users
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+ 29 • Eligibility (paid): Other industrial users on a pay-per-use basis
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+ 30 • Decision time: ~2 working days (FIFO, no competition)
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+ 31 • Calls open: Continuous, no cut-off dates
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+ 32 • Includes: Onboarding services and guidance from the hosting AI Factory
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+ 33 • One system per application
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+ 39 For SMEs/startups already comfortable with HPC who need a real workload-sized allocation.
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+ 40
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+ 41 • GPU hours: Up to 50,000 GPU-hours
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+ 42 • Allocation duration: 1, 2 or 3 months (chosen at application)
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+ 43 • Eligibility (free): AI SMEs and startups with prior HPC experience
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+ 44 • Decision time: ~4 working days (FIFO)
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+ 45 • Calls open: Continuous, no cut-off dates
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+ 46 • One system per application
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+ 47 • Application portal: access.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/calls/49
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+ 53 For production-scale AI training (foundation models, large fine-tunes, big multi-node runs).
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+ 54
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+ 55 • GPU hours: More than 50,000 — upper bound varies per system. For example MareNostrum5 ACC allows up to 4,644,864 GPU-hours per proposal.
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+ 56 • Allocation duration: 3, 6 or 12 months
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+ 57 • Eligibility (free): AI SMEs and startups for innovation purposes
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+ 58 • Decision time: ~10 working days after a cut-off
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+ 59 • Calls open: Rolling with ~24 cut-off dates per year (roughly every two weeks, all at 10:00 CET)
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+ 60 • Evaluation: Technical review + EuroHPC JU peer-review office
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+ 61 • Currently available systems: LUMI, Discoverer (Leonardo and MareNostrum5 are temporarily closed in this mode due to high demand — verify on the portal before applying)
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+ 67 The relevant track for PhD students, postdocs, faculty, public-sector researchers, and EU-funded project consortia.
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+ 68
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+ 69 • What you get: Free and open compute on EuroHPC AI Factories for AI/ML, foundation models and LLM research
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+ 70 • Eligibility: Public and private users primarily for publicly funded research, plus industrial users in collaborative projects funded by Horizon Europe or the Digital Europe Programme
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+ 71 • Cost: Free
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+ 72 • No competitive ranking like classic Regular Access — the AI Factories track is intended to be lower-friction than EuroHPC's traditional peer-reviewed Extreme/Regular Access
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+ 73 • Apply via: access.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu
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+ 74
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+ 75 If you have a faculty supervisor and an institutional email, this is the path you want — not Playground/Fast Lane.
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+ 81 EuroHPC "GPU-hour" allocations resolve to different physical accelerators depending on which AI Factory you choose:
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+ 83 SystemCountryGPU
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+ 84 LUMI (LUMI AI Factory)FinlandAMD Instinct MI250X (LUMI-G partition)
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+ 85 LeonardoItalyNVIDIA A100 (Booster module)
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+ 86 MareNostrum5 ACCSpainNVIDIA H100
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+ 87 DiscovererBulgaria(CPU + GPU partitions)
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+ 88 KarolinaCzechiaNVIDIA A100
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+ 89 MeluXinaLuxembourgNVIDIA A100
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+ 90 VegaSloveniaNVIDIA A100
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+ 91 DeucalionPortugalNVIDIA H100
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+ 92
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+ 93 New AI-Factory–dedicated systems are being procured across the EU; check the AI Factory page for the host you target before submitting.
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+ 94
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+ 95 LUMI-G in particular is AMD ROCm (not CUDA) — your stack must work on ROCm (PyTorch ROCm builds, JAX ROCm, etc.). For NVIDIA-only code, target Leonardo, MareNostrum5 or Deucalion.
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+ 101 1. Go to access.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu and create an account (EU Login).
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+ 102 2. Pick the right call:
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+ 103 • Industrial Playground → if you are an AI SME/startup and just want to try it.
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+ 104 • Industrial Fast Lane → if you are an AI SME/startup, comfortable with Slurm/MPI, and need ≤50K GPU-h.
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+ 105 • Industrial Large Scale → if you are an AI SME/startup needing >50K GPU-h.
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+ 106 • AI for Science and Collaborative Projects → if you are academia / public sector / EU-project consortium.
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+ 107 3. Fill the online application form. You will need:
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+ 108 • Project description (scientific/technical relevance)
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+ 109 • Resources requested (GPU-hours, storage, target system)
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+ 110 • Team/PI info and institution
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+ 111 • For industrial tracks: SME/startup status documentation
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+ 112 4. Choose one target AI Factory / system per application.
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+ 113 5. Submit. Decisions arrive in 2 working days (Playground), 4 working days (Fast Lane), or 10 working days after the next cut-off (Large Scale).
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+ 114 6. On approval, you get accounts on the chosen system, a project ID, and a quota measured in GPU-hours. Standard SSH + Slurm workflow.
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+ 120 • Academia cannot use Industrial Playground / Fast Lane / Large Scale. EuroHPC explicitly redirects academic and public-sector users to AI for Science. Do not apply to the wrong track — it will be rejected.
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+ 121 • "AI SME / startup" is verified. The free industrial tracks check that you are actually an SME (EU SME definition: <250 employees, ≤€50M turnover) and that AI is your core activity.
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+ 122 • One system per application. You cannot mix LUMI + MareNostrum5 in one allocation — submit two applications if you need both.
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+ 123 • Leonardo and MareNostrum5 may be closed for new Large Scale allocations during high-demand periods. Check the call page before writing the proposal.
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+ 124 • GPU-hours are wallclock × #GPUs, not node-hours. A LUMI-G node has 4× MI250X (8 GCDs) — burning a full node for 1 hour costs 8 GPU-hours by EuroHPC accounting on LUMI.
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+ 125 • No credit card, no payment — but also no on-demand spin-up. You wait for an allocation decision before you can run anything.
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+ 126 • Storage is included but limited; large datasets may need a separate data-transfer plan.
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+ 132 • vs AWS / Azure free credits: EuroHPC is not on-demand — you wait days for approval — but allocations are much larger and don't burn against a credit card.
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+ 133 • vs NAIRR (US): similar model (publicly funded HPC for researchers) but EuroHPC also has a real free industrial path for SMEs/startups, which NAIRR doesn't.
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+ 134 • vs LUMI's national/consortium quotas: applying via your country's national allocation can be faster if you're already at a partner institution, but EuroHPC AI Factories opens LUMI to non-consortium users.
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+ 140 • Start with Playground if it's your first EuroHPC application — onboarding is included and decisions are 2 days, so you can validate your code on real hardware before writing a Fast Lane / Large Scale proposal.
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+ 141 • Write Large Scale proposals around the cut-off calendar. Submitting the day after a cut-off means waiting 2 weeks + 10 working days for a decision.
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+ 142 • LUMI AI Factory has its own community docs and training events — useful even before your allocation lands.
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+ 143 • For pure model inference / quick experiments, EuroHPC is overkill — use Cerebras / Groq / OpenRouter free tiers instead and save EuroHPC for training runs.
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+ 144 • Consult the AI Factories helpdesk before submitting a Large Scale proposal — they will tell you whether your target system has capacity.
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+ 145
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+ 147
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+ 148 Sources:
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+ 149 • AI Factories Access Modes overview (EuroHPC JU)
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+ 150 • Playground Access to AI factories
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+ 151 • Fast Lane Access to AI factories
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+ 152 • Large Scale Access to AI factories
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+ 153 • AI Factories FAQs
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+ 154 • EuroHPC Access Portal
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+ 155 • LUMI Supercomputer — EuroHPC JU access calls for AI Factories
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+ 156 • LUMI AI Factory — EuroHPC JU access calls
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+ 157 • EuroHPC JU Access Policy (April 2025 PDF)
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