BI-REX- BIG DATA INNOVATION RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

Their core work

BI-REX is an Italian research and innovation competence centre based in Bologna, operating as Italy's national node within the EuroHPC High Performance Computing network. Their practical work centres on making HPC resources accessible to industry — through skills training, industry awareness campaigns, and business development support aimed at companies that could benefit from supercomputing but lack the internal expertise to access it. They act as a bridge between academic computing infrastructure and commercial users, particularly SMEs, helping translate raw computing power into industrial application. Within the EuroHPC framework, they also engaged in twinning activities — transferring knowledge and operational practices between national competence centres across Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects — both starting in 2020 — there is no meaningful multi-year arc to trace. What can be observed is a shift in emphasis between the two companion programmes: EUROCC focused on establishing the HPC competence centre and delivering training to industry, while CASTIEL shifted toward inter-centre coordination, twinning, networking, and business development. This suggests BI-REX moved quickly from building internal capacity to operationalising it outward — toward other European centres and toward commercial clients. The trajectory implies an organisation in early expansion, transitioning from capability-building to ecosystem participation.

BI-REX appears to be building toward a role as a sustained intermediary between European HPC infrastructure and Italian industry, with twinning and business development indicating ambitions beyond pure training delivery.

How they like to work

BI-REX has participated exclusively as a third party in H2020 — never as coordinator or formal participant — which is consistent with how national competence centres typically enter large framework programmes. The 110 partners and 33 countries reflect the inherent scale of the EuroHPC network rather than BI-REX's own bilateral relationship-building. Working with them likely means engaging with a well-connected but institutionally embedded actor who operates within defined European frameworks and is most effective when the collaboration fits an existing programme structure.

Through the EuroHPC framework, BI-REX has exposure to 110 consortium partners across 33 countries — a broad European footprint. This network is programme-derived rather than organically built, so the depth of individual relationships is unclear from the available data alone.

What sets them apart

BI-REX holds a specific institutional position as Italy's national HPC competence centre within the EuroHPC ecosystem, granting it formal recognition and access to European supercomputing infrastructure that most Italian research centres lack. Located in Bologna — one of Italy's strongest research and industrial clusters — they are positioned to serve both the Emilia-Romagna manufacturing base and the broader Italian SME sector with HPC and big data services. For a consortium builder, they offer the dual value of Italian national HPC access rights and a pre-existing connection to all other European national competence centres through EUROCC and CASTIEL.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EUROCC
  Italy's entry point into the pan-European HPC competence centre network, giving BI-REX formal standing as a national node within EuroHPC and access to a 33-country partnership structure.
• CASTIEL
  The coordination companion to EUROCC focused on twinning and knowledge transfer between national centres, demonstrating BI-REX's role as an active participant in European-level HPC governance and dissemination, not just a local training provider.