On April 19th, an event with an international presence was held at the National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria with the aim to raise awareness on the role of High Performance Computing (HPC) in transforming Europe's digital future by providing solutions to a wide range of societal, scientific, and industrial challenges.

The event gathered more than 250 scientists and industrialists as well as representatives of ministries from the South and Eastern Europe. There were also representantives of InnoHPC partners - Yantsislav Yanakiev from Bulgarian Research Centre Regional and Global Development, Nikolai Genov, dr. sc. phil., from Free University Berlin/ SASS, Slovenia - Institute of Global and Regional Development, and Zlatan Car from University of Rijeka, Center for Advanced Computing and Modelling.

Sofia Digital Forum 2018 was opened by the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov. The EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel presented the EU HPC strategic initiative. It consists in the building of a network of powerful supercomputers which will be able to position the EU among the leading actors in the use of HPC. Following the special focus of the Bulgarian EU Presidency on the Western Balkans, the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Education and Science Ivan Dimov presented achievements and handicaps of the digital connectivity of the European Union and the West Balkans. The Sessions “HPC for extreme scale scientific applications”, “HPC and future computing paradigms”, “HPC in neuroscience”, “The future of personalized health and medicine” and “The role of HPC in the South and Eastern Europe” included presentations and intensive discussions on these topical issues. In her Closing Remarks the EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel outlined the enormous internal and external challenges to the EU related to the fast digitalization worldwide.

The presentations in the Forum came mostly from partners in the long-term EU HPC project PRACE. Also InnoHPC partner from University of Rijeka, Center for Advanced Computing and Modelling, Prof. Zlatan Car, participated at the debate. Check the video of the discussion.