Renfe and Vueling have already joined BSC Connects, and work is underway to close new alliances with other leading private sector companies and public administrations.
BSC Connects is a pioneer initiative in Spain to accelerate public-private collaboration in the field of AI and supercomputing.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) has presented the BSC Connects programme, an innovative initiative to boost public-private collaboration and optimise business processes and competitiveness. Thanks to this new programme, the business sector will be able to access the knowledge and technology of BSC and apply the computational capacity of the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer and other BSC computational resources, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies, with the aim of promoting the development of innovative solutions to address their main business challenges.
The presentation event, held at Casa Seat, began with a speech by Josep M. Martorell, Associate Director of BSC, who presented BSC's innovation strategy, and also included a conversation between Xavier Marcet, President of Lead to Change, and Ramon Pastor, Global Head and General Manager of HP, as well as a round table with representatives from IESE, Vueling Airlines, RENFE and Almirall. The event was also attended by the Director General of Knowledge Transfer and Society of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Javier Selva.
“With BSC Connects, we want to bring all the knowledge and technology of BSC to companies, helping them to transform their businesses with innovative solutions and to anticipate the technological challenges of the future. In this way, we reinforce our commitment to knowledge transfer and the development of advanced technologies, facilitating access to supercomputing as a key driver for industrial and scientific progress,” says Mariona Sanz, director of Innovation and Business Development at BSC.
BSC Connects is based on a collaboration model renewable for up to three years, structured in several phases that include the identification of technological challenges, the integration of the company into the BSC ecosystem, the training and search for solutions and finally the evaluation and optimisation of results. In addition, the programme incorporates joint communication actions, promotion of use cases and participation in international conferences and fairs, thus consolidating an innovation network between science and industry.
This programme is inspired by the Industrial Liaison Program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which offers long-term collaborations with companies, and represents a pioneering initiative in Spain to accelerate public-private collaboration in the field of AI and supercomputing.
Vueling and RENFE, first partners
Companies participating in BSC Connects will be able to work together with BSC researchers in different scientific areas, ranging from computer science to life and earth sciences, engineering and computational social sciences. In addition, the programme will serve as a bridge to Barcelona's technology and innovation ecosystem, facilitating connections with commercial solutions and collaborations with public administrations.
Within the framework of this initiative, the BSC has already started collaborations with leading companies such as Vueling, to respond to business challenges related to sustainability, and RENFE, for the development of AI cases that have an impact on improving customer experience and efficiency. It is also working on agreements with other companies such as Almirall and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB).
The launch of BSC Connects coincides with the recent announcement of the European Commission's AI Factory initiative, which has awarded €200 million to BSC for the creation of one of Europe's first seven AI factories. This new infrastructure will provide access to powerful computational resources, such as the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, and R&D services to companies, startups, SMEs and scientists, accelerating the development of AI applications aligned with European values.
This article was first published on 18 February by Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
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