Sánchez stresses the role of MareNostrum 5 in boosting the EU's reindustrialisation and strategic autonomy

National Supercomputing Centre, Barcelona

"We share the aim of making Barcelona a European scientific benchmark, for the benefit of Barcelona, Catalonia and the whole of Spain; because what is good for Barcelona and Catalonia is good for Spain and for Europe", stressed the head of the Executive, who was accompanied by the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant; the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès; and the European Director General of Networks, Content and Communication Technologies, Roberto Viola; among other authorities.

MareNostrum 5 is a key facility for leading the digital transformation and industrialisation of Catalonia, Spain and Europe, and will turn the BSC-CNS into the major node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network, which includes 16 supercomputers distributed in 11 autonomous communities.

Example of collaboration and knowledge, employment and training centre

The president of the Government of Spain sees MareNostrum 5 as an achievement in the public-private partnership model and cooperation at all levels of public administration, in line with the three priorities that will be reinforced with the start-up of this supercomputer: promotion of basic research, support for the business fabric and training of scientists and technicians.

"This centre will produce knowledge, will generate hundreds of jobs directly and thousands indirectly, and will train the professionals of today and tomorrow", stressed the head of the Executive, who defined the facilities that house MareNostrum 5 as "a centre of excellence in the new knowledge economy".

This collaboration model is also reflected in the figures: the development of this supercomputer had 35% public investment, from the Government of Spain (23.33%) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (11.66%); and 65% from European funds and from the states that supported this candidacy: Portugal, Turkey and Croatia. In turn, the BSC-CNS consortium has a 51% public contribution from the State.

Leadership in supercomputing and commitment to digital transformation

The head of the Executive has also highlighted the fundamental role that the Ministries of Science, Innovation and Universities and Digital Transformation will play in the digital roll out, whose recent creation is a clear demonstration of the Government's commitment to digitalisation. "This is confirmation that our country is looking at the challenge of digitalisation with full determination and without any fear of the transformations it implies," he said.

This project reinforces Spain's leadership position in supercomputing and is key to developing the Microelectronics and Semiconductor Strategic Project (PERTE Chip) and to achieving the objective of producing 20% of global semiconductors in Europe. "Europe can and must achieve autonomy in chip manufacturing, and this centre is set to play a central role in our semiconductor ecosystem," said Pedro Sánchez.

The president of the Government of Spain put the working capacity of the MareNostrum 5 at more than 200,000 trillion operations per second, which will have practical and specific applications in areas such as health, climate emergency, communication and digital transition. "Every euro spent on advancing this technology is a euro well invested. There is no more profitable investment," he said.

Non official translation