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Deliverable 5.3 Landscape of RIs: technologies, services, gaps

14 June 2025Luis Cifuentes and Hans-Christian Hoppe

SPECTRUM Deliverable D5.3, Landscape of RIs: technologies, services, gaps

D5.3 Landscape of RIs: technologies, services, gaps

Lead partner: FZJ

This deliverable:

  • Contains an analysis of the technical characteristics of 20 European e-Infrastructures in the areas of High-Performance Computing, High-Throughput Computing, Cloud Computing, and Data, which are open for use by European scientists
  • Compares and contrasts them with the requirements of European research communities, in particular the High-Energy Physics and Radio Astronomy fields, with a focus on the use cases described in Spectrum Deliverable D5.1 (Representative use cases: analysis and alignment)
  • Identifies and discusses recommendations for the future evolution of the e-Infrastructure landscape in Europe

Download and view on Zenodo

Executive Summary

Radio Astronomy (RA) and High-Energy Physics (HEP) depend on fast, secure access to compute, storage, and data
services distributed across Europe. The SPECTRUM D5.3 deliverable 1 maps the technical characteristics of 20
European e-Infrastructures – spanning High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems [with the EuroHPC Joint
Undertaking 2 underpinning this landscape, establishing and sustaining the main HPC European-class ecosystem],
High-Throughput Computing (HTC), Cloud e-Infrastructures, and data-oriented repositories – and compares them
with RA/HEP needs and the use cases defined in Deliverable D5.1 3 . It also outlines recommendations for how this
landscape should evolve.

The deliverable will serve as one of the inputs to the second phase of SPECTRUM (months 16-30) and eventually for the SRIDA and Technical Blueprint, to be delivered at the end of the project.

Map of EuroHPC Joint Undertaking supercomputers across Europe, by exascale, pre-exascale and mid-range class

Why this matters

As instruments scale (from next-gen radio arrays to collider experiments), so do data volumes and workflow
complexity. A clear, comparable view of which technologies and services exist – and where gaps remain – helps
research teams plan robust pipelines, align access policies, and prioritize investments across federated resources.
The SPECTRUM D5.3 report provides exactly that structured overview.

  • Scope: A comparative analysis of 20 European e-Infrastructures open to European scientists.
  • Domains: HPC, HTC, Cloud, and Data services, with attention to software stacks and federation aspects.
  • Benchmark: Alignment with the RA/HEP communities and the requirements for use cases identified in D5.1
    (Representative use cases: analysis and alignment) 4 and the SPECTRUMCoP (SPECTRUM Community of Practice) 5 to
    ground the analysis in real community needs.
Key aspects analysed: storage, compute, data transfer and federation, software services, compute federation

Technical and operational requirements for future e-Infrastructures

SPECTRUM D5.3 derives technical and operational requirements for future e-Infrastructures:

  • FAIR storage for observation/experiment data across domains.
  • Take care in including GDPR and special category data.
  • Automated, efficient data movement and data staging.
  • Plan data transfer capacity according to research community requirements.
  • Enable portability of compute tasks across accelerated compute platforms.
  • Establish common workflow systems supported by all e-Infrastructures.
  • Establish common SW stacks for compute applications.
Simpl-Open diagram: data space participants connect through Simpl agents and a shared data space catalogue

Highlights and Implications for RA and HEP

  • Technologies and services catalogued: Compute modalities, storage, data transfer, and software ecosystems
    documented uniformly.
  • Gaps identified: Current capabilities and policies gaps highlighted; harmonization/federation themes emphasized,
    such as Simpl (Smart Middleware Platform) 6.
  • Actionable direction: Recommendations for evolving the European e-Infrastructure landscape to support data-
    intensive science.

Implications for RA & HEP

  • Planning and portability: Teams can better plan workflows across heterogeneous sites.
  • Policy alignment: Supports harmonization efforts to accelerate cross-discipline science.
  • Sustainable evolution: Helps funders/operators target improvements benefiting multiple communities.

Join us!

Read SPECTRUM D5.3 and share it with infrastructure leads and project PIs to inform resource planning and
cross-site collaborations.
This deliverable gives European science communities a strategic overview of e-Infrastructure capabilities and gaps,
guiding how resources can evolve to meet the increasing needs of RA and HEP communities.

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