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PDC Center for High Performance Computing

BioExcel-3 Activities

Alessandra Villa, PDC

BioExcel-3 is running a lot of initiatives to support the biomolecular simulation community.

The webinars ( bioexcel.eu/category/webinar ) feature notable developments in the field of computational biomolecular research. Have a look at the playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLqYW5ci-2fanl2RtYHyFvjftu_M4Jwy .

The forums support the user communities of the four core applications: GROMACS, HADDOCK, BioBB, and PMX (see ask.bioexcel.eu  and gromacs.bioexcel.eu ).

The competency hub contains competency information, career profiles and training resources that you can browse to get help to advance your career (see competency.ebi.ac.uk/framework/bioexcel/3.0 ).

The ambassador program ( bioexcel.eu/about/governance/ambassador-program ) provides specialist training tailored to the needs of researchers in specific areas.

BioExcel Ambassador Program

PDC leads the BioExcel Ambassador Program. One of the core activities within the program is organising tailored, user-defined workshops. In recent months, BioExcel has been streamlining the process of identifying researchers’ needs and organising training that covers those requirements. Several key steps have been established.

  1. Ambassadors from geographically close and/or neighbouring countries work together to choose a suitable host country for training in that region.
  2. The ambassadors undertake outreach activities within their own research communities to understand the training needs of those local researchers. To facilitate this, BioExcel has developed a training portfolio and survey that the ambassadors can distribute to their local research communities. Then the workshop topic will be selected to target the most pressing needs of the researchers in that region.
  3. EuroHPC National Competence Centres in the relevant countries are involved in supporting the organisation of the workshop and providing access to suitable computing infrastructure.
  4. Overall, the workshop organisation is driven by the local research institutions and EuroHPC National Competence Centres, while BioExcel mainly contributes by providing trainers and training materials, as well as sharing know-how concerning the organisational aspects of running workshops.

The first workshop in the BioExcel Ambassador Program was known as the “Carpathian edition” and was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, in October 2023. It was a great success. The second workshop (or “Atlantic edition”) was held in Coimbra, Portugal, in November 2024 and was also very popular. In May this year, the third and very valuable “Balkan edition” workshop was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The next one (the “Adriatic edition”) will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in February 2026. For further details and to register to attend the workshop, see: bioexcel.eu/events/bioexcel-eurocc-workshop-in-slovenia .