The Missions and Objectives of IDRIS

IDRIS (The Institute for Development and Resources in Intensive Scientific Computing), founded in 1993, is the national centre of the CNRS for intensive numerical calculations of very high performance computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), serving scientific research communities which rely on extreme computing, both public and private (on condition of open research with publication of results).

A centre of computing resources and a pole of competence in HPC and AI, IDRIS (www.idris.fr) is a research support unit for the CNRS, under the auspices of the Open Research Data Department (DDOR) of the CNRS, is administratively attached to the Institute for Information Sciences and Technologies (INS2I) and has a multidiciplinary vocation within the CNRS. Its operational procedures are similar to those employed for very large scientific equipment. IDRIS is currently directed by M. Pierre-François Lavallée.

The principal objective of IDRIS is to contribute as effectively as possible to the excellence of scientific research in the domains of modelling and intensive numerical calculation. To achieve this, IDRIS intervenes on two levels:

  • As a service structure through the implementation and operation of a diversified and avant-garde environment for intensive computing which is both evolving and adapted to the great scientific challenges of numerical simulation and artificial intelligence. This environment encompasses a highly capable user support interface which offers important value-added services. Hence, IDRIS does not limit itself to advising and training but is also implicated in the development and optimisation of scientific codes.
  • As a transfer agent of the latest technologies from computer science research and development to the national infrastructures of high performance computing. Situated at the intersection of science (numerical simulation) and technology (scientific computing) and in close communication with its scientific users, IDRIS is in a privileged position to progressively integrate new technologies into the national system of scientific research. This activity is manifested by the substantial contribution IDRIS made in the 1990s to the diffusion of parallel computing and continues today in the area of massively parallel computing. These advancements reflect the major issues for the coming years in anything concerning HPC and AI.

Moreover, IDRIS has acquired expertise in the domain of supercomputer grids which is recognized on a European scale. Indeed, IDRIS was the coordinator from 2004 to 2008 of the European project which conceptualised and developed the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA, 2004-2011) and currently participates in the succeeding projects: PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) and EOSC (European Open Science Cloud).