The CSC – IT Center for Science is a Finnish non-profit company that provides IT services for research, education and culture. It is owned by the Finnish state and higher education institutions and plays a central role in Finland’s digital research infrastructure. It is the national “science IT backbone” that provides the computing power and digital infrastructure that universities and researchers rely on.
Registration open: CSC Summer School in High-Performance Computing
- What it is: Ten‑day summer school on scientific computing, parallel programming, and code performance.
- When & where: 23 June–2 July 2026 in Nuuksio, Espoo.
- Who should attend: Students and researchers across disciplines working with scientific software and supercomputers.
- Deadlines: Early bird 13 March 2026; final registration 1 May 2026.
“The registration is now open for the traditional CSC Summer School in High-Performance Computing, taking place from 23 June to 2 July, 2026, in Nuuksio, Espoo.”
Roihu pilot projects chosen
- Summary: 28 pilot projects selected to run during Roihu’s acceptance phase to validate the system with real workloads.
- Timing: Pilot phase begins end of March; four‑week testing period precedes general opening.
- Outcome: If tests go well, Roihu will open for general use at the end of April.
“The 28 pilot projects will run as a part of Roihu’s acceptance phase, providing essential real-world workloads to validate the system.”
CSC services received excellent ratings from users
- Survey results: NPS of 62 and average recommendation score 8.8/10 from 648 respondents.
- Who responded: Users from Finnish higher education, research organisations, and companies.
- Impact: Feedback will guide improvements in usability, documentation, and training.
“CSC’s services received excellent ratings in the 2025 Data Management and Computing Services user survey.”
Training collaboration: bringing CSC services closer to students
- Goal: Integrate CSC tools into teaching so students adopt research tools early.
- Partners: University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Oulu UAS, Arcada UAS; expansion planned.
- Invitation: CSC invites proposals for joint training or curricula development.
“One of the most effective ways to raise awareness of CSC’s services is to integrate them into teaching and training early in students’ studies.”
Supercomputing for business at Jyväskylä
- Event: Seminar on 5 March for companies to learn about RDI with the LUMI supercomputer.
- Content: Talks by CSC experts, industry success stories, and funding information.
- Perks: LUMI AI Factory services free for SMEs and startups; materials available in English.
“Supercomputing for business seminar will take place in Jyväskylä on 5 March, targeting companies interested in boosting their RDI activities with the EuroHPC LUMI supercomputer.”
- Better research data management — together
- Purpose: Improve research quality, transparency, reproducibility, and data reuse through better data management.
- Structures: CSC’s Research Data Management Competence Center, CSC Data Support Network, and the Nordic Data Stewardship Network.
- Support: Trainings and self‑paced courses in Finnish and English; suggestions for new topics welcome.
“Well-managed research data improves the quality, transparency and reproducibility of research and enables data reuse and new discoveries.”
Q‑Neko advances EU–Japan collaboration in quantum technologies
- Overview: Launch of Q‑Neko in 2026 to unite European and Japanese research and industry stakeholders.
- Aim: Develop future computing solutions combining quantum technologies and HPC expertise.
- Significance: Strengthens international collaboration in next‑generation computing.
“Q-Neko unites top-tier research and industry stakeholders from Europe and Japan to develop future computing solutions.”
- What’s new (platform updates and software)
- Highlights: PyTorch 2.9.1 available on Puhti and Mahti; new Capacity Volumes in Pouta; Kaivos database decommissioned.
- Purpose: Keep users informed about recent changes to computing and data management environments.
- Where to check: CSC Docs “What’s New” page for full details.
“Most important new features and changes to the computing and data management environment in January-February 2026: · PyTorch 2.9.1 available on Puhti and Mahti.”
Breakthrough science enabled by LUMI
- Impact: LUMI used in ~3,500 projects across 30 disciplines and acknowledged in over 280 peer‑reviewed articles.
- Notable outputs: 34 articles in Nature family journals and publications in Science and Cell.
- Reach: Cited widely in conference papers and preprints, demonstrating broad scientific influence.
“Since its launch, LUMI supercomputer’s capacity has been utilized in around 3500 research projects from 30 scientific disciplines.”
Finnish LUMI Extreme Scale Access call for proposals
- Purpose: Open call for high‑impact projects needing exceptionally large HPC allocations and storage.
- Who can apply: Researchers in Finnish higher education, research institutes, and private enterprises.
- Deadline: 26 February 2026; this is the only planned Finnish Extreme Scale call for 2026.
“The 2026 Finnish LUMI Extreme Scale Access call for proposals is open… Call deadline is 26 February 2026.”
EuroHPC Federation Platform webinar series
- Context: First EFP release planned for early April with a training and webinar series underway.
- Upcoming topics: Federated Software (25 Feb), Interactive (4 Mar), Authentication & Authorization Infrastructure (29 Apr), plus workflows later.
- Access: Opening webinar recording available on the EFP website.
“The opening webinar on 4 February provided a high-level overview of the project, and the recording is available on the EFP website.”
