D3.2.3: PRACE Advanced Training Centres

This is a proposal to establish three PRACE Advanced Training Centres (abbreviated as PATCs) in the PRACE region. The mission of the PATCs is to “serve as European hubs of advanced, world-class training for researchers working in the computational sciences”, that is, to provide and to coordinate training and education activities needed to achieve best utilisation of the PRACE research infrastructure by the community. The envisioned long-term purpose of the centres is to become the driver in European high-performance computing education. There will always be at least one such centre in operation, but the geographical locations of the hosting countries may and will vary over time and decided upon every two years. The PATCs will promote a common PRACE brand, representing the whole PRACE community rather than individual hosting sites. A common training curriculum, designed and coordinated by PRACE with input from user communities, is to be implemented by the centres along with site-specific courses/workshops. The Operational Management Board, consisting of representatives from the hosting centres and PRACE (project and/or association), will oversee and be responsible for the activities of the PATCs.