Procurement of a High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) intends to issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for a new High-Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The procurement is intended to meet ECMWF’s high performance computing requirements in two areas. Firstly it should provide a highly-available computational backbone for ECMWF’s time-sensitive numerical weather …

CPV: 30211100 Суперкомпютър (с голяма изчислителна мощ)
Място на изпълнение:
Procurement of a High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)
Издаващ орган:
European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Номер на наградата:
ECMWF/ITT/2025/380

1. Buyer

1.1 Buyer

Official name : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Legal type of the buyer : International organisation
Activity of the contracting authority : Environmental protection

2. Procedure

2.1 Procedure

Title : Procurement of a High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)
Description : The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) intends to issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for a new High-Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). The procurement is intended to meet ECMWF’s high performance computing requirements in two areas. Firstly it should provide a highly-available computational backbone for ECMWF’s time-sensitive numerical weather prediction using both physics and data-driven models. Secondly it should provide resources specifically optimised for the training of machine learning models. The requirement for a highly-available production service should be met by the phased installation during 2027 of several new HPC clusters in the ECMWF Data Centre in Bologna. The resources for training machine learning models may be provisioned on-premises at the Bologna facility, hosted in a remote data centre, or delivered via public cloud environments. ECMWF’s intention is to procure the new HPCF by means of a service contract that includes the initial provision of the service, together with full support and other items such as software licences and upgrades, hardware and software maintenance, training and migration assistance as well as options to extend the service in the future in time with additional on-site or off-premise services. The new HPCF is intended to provide a service for a period of five-years.
Internal identifier : ECMWF/ITT/2025/380

2.1.1 Purpose

Main nature of the contract : Supplies
Main classification ( cpv ): 30211100 Super computer

2.1.2 Place of performance

Postal address : Tecnopolo di Bologna, Via Stalingrado 84/3
Town : Bologna
Postcode : 40128
Country subdivision (NUTS) : Bologna ( ITH55 )
Country : Italy
Additional information : The main place of performance is at ECMWF's Data Centre.

2.1.4 General information

Additional information : The procurement for the contract will be conducted in accordance with ECMWF's procedures as set out in ECMWF's Invitation to Tender documents, which will be available on ECMWF's eProcurement Portal ( https://procurement.ecmwf.int/) and no other procedures will apply. In submitting this notice ECMWF does not waive the privileges and immunities granted to it by virtue of its status as an Intergovernmental Organisation or submit itself to any jurisdiction. Tenders must be submitted using ECMWF's eProcurement Portal. Hard copy (paper) submissions will not be accepted. The estimated date of publication of a contract notice within this procedure is the earliest possible date.
Legal basis :
Other

3. Part

3.1 Part technical ID : PAR-0001

Title : Procurement of a High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF)
Description : ECMWF’s existing high performance computing resources were acquired under an agreement that is scheduled to expire at the end of October 2027. The final configuration delivered under this agreement comprises four Atos BullSequana XH2000 systems each with 1920 application nodes based around two socket 64 core AMD Rome processors. More information on ECMWF's current HPCF can be found here: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/computing/our-facilities/supercomputer-facility . Two workloads drive the HPCF requirement: (i) Physics based modelling and data assimilation based around MPI and OpenMP parallel applications and (ii) Data-driven modelling using the Anemoi framework based around Python and PyTorch; the latter with AI/ML hardware acceleration support. ECMWF’s intention is to procure the new HPCF by means of a service contract that includes the initial provision of the service, together with full support and other items such as software licences and upgrades, hardware and software maintenance, training and migration assistance as well as options to extend the service in the future in time with additional on-site or off-premise services. The new HPCF will provide the production service to the end of the contract period in 2032. As an operational weather forecasting centre, ECMWF has obligations to provide meteorological products to a tight schedule and strives to be as environmentally responsible as possible. The highly-available production service for machine learning inference, physics based modelling and data assimilation applications should be met by the phased installation during 2027 of several new HPC clusters in the ECMWF Data Centre in Bologna and will run in parallel with the existing HPCF until the end of current HPCF contract. Data driven modelling is a rapidly growing part of ECMWF’s strategy so in addition to the on-premises resources for prediction using both physics and data-driven models, ECMWF seeks to procure supplementary resources specifically optimised for the training of machine learning models. These resources may be provisioned on-premises at the Bologna facility, hosted in a remote data centre, or delivered via public cloud environments. Benchmarks using ECMWF IFS and AIFS codes will be a key part of the evaluation of systems bid in response to this ITT. Initial IFS and AIFS RAPS benchmarks (RAPS23) have been released. Updates to the benchmark will be released up to the publication of the ITT after which only functional modifications will be allowed. For instructions on accessing the benchmark code please email itt380-benchmarks@groups.ecmwf.int .
Internal identifier : ECMWF/ITT/2025/380

3.1.1 Purpose

Main nature of the contract : Supplies
Main classification ( cpv ): 30211100 Super computer

3.1.2 Place of performance

Postal address : Tecnopolo di Bologna, Via Stalingrado 84/3
Town : Bologna
Postcode : 40128
Country subdivision (NUTS) : Bologna ( ITH55 )
Country : Italy
Additional information : The main place of performance is at ECMWF's Data Centre.

3.1.5 General information

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) : no

3.1.6 Procurement documents

Access to certain procurement documents is restricted
Justification for restricting access to certain procurement documents : Tools, devices, or file formats not generally available
Languages in which the procurement documents are officially available : English
Information about restricted documents is available at : https://procurement.ecmwf.int/ ,
Ad hoc communication channel
Name : During the ITT stage all communication will be conducted via ECMWF's eProcurement Portal accessible at https://procurement.ecmwf.int/. Tenderers must register their organisation on the Portal to be able to access the ITT documents and to be able to submit a response to the ITT. Registration is free and the process is managed by the Portal provider.

3.1.9 Further information, mediation and review

Review organisation : European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Organisation providing additional information about the procurement procedure : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Organisation providing offline access to the procurement documents : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Organisation providing more information on the review procedures : European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Organisation receiving requests to participate : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Organisation processing tenders : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

8. Organisations

8.1 ORG-0001

Official name : European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Registration number : fiscal code no. 91148050684
Postal address : Tecnopolo di Bologna, Via Stalingrado 84/3
Town : Bologna
Postcode : 40128
Country subdivision (NUTS) : Bologna ( ITH55 )
Country : Italy
Contact point : Procurement at ECMWF
Telephone : +390510422100
Internet address : https://www.ecmwf.int/
Information exchange endpoint (URL) : https://procurement.ecmwf.int/
Roles of this organisation :
Buyer
Organisation providing additional information about the procurement procedure
Organisation providing offline access to the procurement documents
Organisation receiving requests to participate
Organisation processing tenders

8.1 ORG-0002

Official name : European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Registration number : n/a
Postal address : Shinfield Park
Town : Reading
Postcode : RG2 9AX
Country : United Kingdom
Contact point : Procurement at ECMWF
Telephone : +441189499000
Internet address : https://www.ecmwf.int/
Information exchange endpoint (URL) : https://procurement.ecmwf.int/
Roles of this organisation :
Review organisation
Organisation providing more information on the review procedures

8.1 ORG-0000

Official name : Publications Office of the European Union
Registration number : PUBL
Town : Luxembourg
Postcode : 2417
Country subdivision (NUTS) : Luxembourg ( LU000 )
Country : Luxembourg
Telephone : +352 29291
Internet address : https://op.europa.eu
Roles of this organisation :
TED eSender

Notice information

Notice identifier/version : 0416f13f-ae9e-46aa-bd44-09fbe29a2662 - 01
Form type : Planning
Notice type : Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used only for information
Notice dispatch date : 07/07/2025 10:44 +00:00
Languages in which this notice is officially available : English
Notice publication number : 00442708-2025
OJ S issue number : 128/2025
Publication date : 08/07/2025
Estimated date of publication of a contract notice within this procedure : 15/10/2025