Waldur serves as a digital platform in the EuroCC project, enabling seamless management of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and related services across various European nations. As an open-source multi-cloud marketplace, Waldur provides automation, billing, and a self-service environment—making it easier for users to access compute resources, deploy solutions, and manage projects. Its modular integration with industry-standard tools, allows national competence centers to offer tailored services that meet the rapidly evolving needs of research, academia, and industry.
NCC Montenegro, leveraging Waldur, has implemented public offerings of services through HPC Service Hub: Consultation services, an HPC-for-SME Assessment Tool, EuroHPC infrastructure access support and specialized training modules. These offerings empower local innovators, SMEs, and researchers by facilitating direct access to computational resources, expert guidance, and skill-building opportunities that foster the country’s digital transformation and integration into the broader European HPC ecosystem.
The NCC Montenegro has been presented in the September 2025 edition of Glasnik, the official publication of the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro.
The article highlights the NCC’s role in strengthening national capacities in HPC/HPDA/AI technologies, providing training, support and access to supercomputing resources for companies, academic institutions and public institutions. Glasnik emphasises why HPC and AI matter for Montenegro: faster data processing, running complex simulations, development of AI models, and accelerated innovation and product development. It describes how NCC supports SMEs and startups by enabling them to test ideas, train models, and develop new digital products without investing in costly infrastructure. Glasnik also notes practical examples of HPC use in Montenegro—financial modelling, weather prediction, smart agriculture, precise medicine and tourism 4.0. The article encourages companies to explore HPC/AI opportunities, NCC support and European supercomputing resources to enhance innovative capacities and international competitiveness.
NCC Montenegro successfully concluded its participation at the CASTIEL 2, EuroCC 2, and EuroCC4SEE conference (All Hands Meeting – AHM) held September 23–25, 2025, in Tallinn, Estonia, under the motto: “HPC in Europe – toward a resilient future”
As the final gathering for the current phases of these European HPC, HPDA, and AI projects, the conference endorsed collaborative efforts of Project Management Team (PMT), National Competence Centres (NCCs), and Centres of Excellence (CoEs) to showcase research achievements, industry results, exchange national experiences, and plan further joint initiatives to strengthen the European HPC ecosystem alongside EuroHPC JU partners.
The three-day agenda combined project updates, focused breakout sessions, and strategic discussions. Following a welcoming address, the first day focused on reviewing the status and key activities of the CASTIEL 2 and EuroCC2/4SEE projects. A core session was dedicated to Increasing Visibility, which included presentations on the fully consolidated HPC in Europe portal and the HPC Service Hub expansion – a marketplace tool connecting local users with EuroHPC expertise and resources.
The second day started with an Sustainability working session, focusing on key propositions, main drivers, and challenges of NCC business models beyond JU funding. Both days, afternoon hours were reserved for poster networking sessions, where 33 NCCs and 14 CoEs showcased local/domain HPC outreach, discussed national HPC maturity, and explored opportunities to share knowledge, practices, and activities to address local HPC needs and strengthen the European HPC network.
The third day focused on forward-looking planning, featuring discussions on EuroCC 3 / CASTIEL 3 project activities and cooperation with AI Factories, shaping the strategic direction for the next phase of European HPC collaboration. Furthermore, in parallel, breakout sessions were conducted for NCC/CoE representatives related to Industry Interaction (NCC industry contributions, challenges, and PoC analyses), Training & Skills Development (EVITA – EuroHPC Virtual Training Academy), and Communication Strategies (enhancing team communication).
NCC Montenegro’s participation in Tallinn marks a successful culmination of the current project phases, showcasing its effective industry practices, successful HPC onboarding for SMEs and start-ups, and strong commitment to providing critical HPC and AI support to innovators across Montenegro, while actively contributing to the advancement of the European supercomputing landscape.
On Friday, September 26, at the Bemax Arena in Podgorica, the 13th Science Festival – “European Researchers’ Night” will take place, organized by the Foundation for the Promotion of Science PRONA (https://festival-nauke.me/).
NCC Montenegro at the 13th Science Festival
The National Competence Center for High Performance Computing – NCC Montenegro (EuroCC2 and EuroCC4SEE), represented through the University of Donja Gorica, will participate in this largest event in Montenegro dedicated to the popularization of science and innovation.
Interaction with the youngest attendees
Through several projects and demonstrations, visitors will see how supercomputers and artificial intelligence (HPC/AI) are shaping the future:
Agriculture – the AIMHiGH project applies AI for real-time poultry disease and behavior analysis.
Human resources – AI tools for improving business processes and enhancing objectivity in decision-making.
Medicine – the AI-AGE project develops AI models for detecting biomarkers of aging from medical imaging.
This event is an opportunity to demonstrate how HPC and AI contribute to sustainable development and the digital transformation of society, while highlighting Montenegro’s active role in the European Research Area.
Through EuroCC2 and EuroCC4SEE, NCC Montenegro continues to build bridges between science and industry, supporting researchers and companies in developing new digital solutions, and positioning Montenegro as part of the European supercomputing and AI community.
Connecting science, innovation and society
The Science Festival once again confirms the importance of NCC Montenegro in connecting science, innovation, and society.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) has awarded a contract to GÉANT, the Association of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to hyperconnect European supercomputers. The contract aims to provide ultra-high bandwidth, secure, pan-European interconnect services for the EuroHPC supercomputing infrastructure, with the goal of giving research communities, public sector, industry, and other innovation stakeholders direct, high-performance access to EuroHPC resources.
In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured eleven supercomputers located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: JUPITER in Germany ranks at 4, becoming Europe’s new fastest supercomputer along with LUMI in Finland (9th place) and Leonardo in Italy (10th place). Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 13 AI factories across Europe that offer free, customized support to SMEs and startups. The EuroHPC JU is also deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with supercomputers.
GÉANT was selected after an open call for tenders (EUROHPC/2024/OP/0008) and the contract, valued at up to 60 million euro, covers the design, implementation, and operation of the hyperconnectivity infrastructure over 48 months. This agreement strengthens Europe’s supercomputing ecosystem and builds upon the existing GÉANT network infrastructure to create a hyperconnected infrastructure with transmission capabilities in the terabits-per-second range. Initial deployment activities in 27 EU Member State countries are expected to begin soon, with first services available in 2026, connecting EuroHPC supercomputers, AI, and quantum sites.
Prof. Enis Kočan, a member of NCC Montenegro, has visited TRID TECH in Podgorica. TRID TECH is a new IT company specializing in comprehensive and customizable managed cybersecurity services, delivered by a team of highly trained professionals. Their focus is on managing cyber risks and ensuring compliance, with the aim of providing an exceptional client experience. Their services include cybersecurity advisory, endpoint and network security, data privacy, and cloud infrastructure security, all geared towards creating robust, secure architectures and meeting regulatory requirements.
During the visit, Prof. Kočan introduced the EuroCC2/EuroCC4SEE project to TRID TECH’s director, Mr. Dmitar Ćulafić, and his team. He detailed the available services and training programs, highlighting the opportunity to access HPC resources for free through EuroHPC JU open calls. TRID TECH, which is working on several GPU-intensive projects, recognized this as a valuable chance to test their algorithms and improve their big data processing efficiency. Prof. Kočan also presented the upcoming 2nd Open FFplus Call for Innovation Studies, outlining its goals, eligibility criteria, and potential benefits..
NCC Montenegro team from the University of Montenegro (UoM), prof. Božo Krstajić and prof. Enis Kočan has visited startup company Deepmark, co-founded by former researcher from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering – UoM, Slavko Kovačević, MSc. This startup company represents an example of how top-tier academic research transforms into real-world solutions.
DeepMark develops technology for invisible and permanent digital marks (watermarks) that can be embedded in images, audio, and video content without compromising quality. These marks enable proof of origin, ownership, and authenticity of content – which is becoming crucial in the era of artificial intelligence and generative media.
NCC Montenegro team visiting DeepMark startup
NCC team has presented the opportunities to access EUroHPC JU resources through different open calls, as well as to obtain financial support to realize ideas through FFplus calls. Deepmark company has already used HPC resources on a commercial basis and plans to prepare proposal to access EuroHPC JU resources.
