Established in 2010, PRACE aisbl is now a well-known actor at both European level and globally, and has achieved many successes, especially by awarding already over 3 billion core-hours on its Tier0 systems.

“Chairing the PRACE Council is a great honour since France, and GENCI, have always acted to create and promote a European HPC ecosystem”, Catherine Rivière said. “I want to thank all the PRACE partners for the confidence they have shown me”, she added.

Since 2007, Catherine Rivière has been CEO of GENCI, the French public agency in charge of national policy in the field of HPC and the French representative in PRACE. She has succeeded Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Germany's Jülich Research Centre, who held the position of Council Chair of PRACE aisbl between June 2010 and June 2012. “Prof. Dr. Achim bachem has successfully united 24 PRACE member countries and laid the foundations for a persistent European research infrastructure under PRACE,” she noted.

“As Council Chair of PRACE aisbl, I have two major priorities: First, strengthening PRACE by establishing specific links to essential stakeholders in Europe and promoting PRACE services to both scientific and industrial users; and second securing its sustainability in coordination with European policy makers”, Catherine Rivière said.