D4.2: Establishment of PRACE Advanced Training Centres

This document describes the first steps carried out to establish hubs for high-performance computing training and education: PRACE Advanced Training Centres (PATC). The first six PATCs became operational early 2012, with the mission to serve as European hubs of advanced, world-class training and education for researchers and students in computational sciences, providing and coordinating knowledge transfer activities needed to achieve best utilisation of the PRACE research infrastructure by the community.
In this deliverable, we document the process employed in the selection of the first six hosting sites, present those sites and discuss various practical matters, such as efforts coordination, finances and curriculum building, related to the operation of the PATC network. Finally, some future plans for the PATC concept and operation are discussed. These plans include a PATC focused on industrial R&D as well as roadmap for PATCs after the end of the PRACE project series. The role and responsibilities of the AISBL regarding the PATCs need still to be defined in the future.