On 4 November 2025, Future Needs organised and led the HiDALGO2 Project Clustering Event in Stuttgart, Germany, hosted by HLRS – High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart. The one-day gathering brought together HPC, AI and climate-modelling experts from across Europe to explore how AI-optimised supercomputers and large-scale simulations can address urgent real-world challenges – from energy efficiency and pollution to disaster prediction and resilient urban planning.
With 18 speakers and a full day of discussions, the event provided a strategic space for collaboration between European initiatives working at the intersection of high-performance computing, big data and societal impact.
The conversations focused on practical, high-impact questions that Europe’s HPC and AI ecosystem is actively tackling:
- What challenges will Europe’s AI Factories be used for?
- How can HPC help simulate urban air quality and thermal comfort at city scale?
- What do digital twins enable for sustainable, resilient cities?
For Future Needs, this was the result of months of preparation, partner coordination, and community-building as part of our work in Horizon Europe’s HiDALGO2 Project. Clustering is not a “nice-to-have” add-on; it’s how EU projects multiply their impact. By bringing the right people into the same room, we help create the conditions for new collaborations, shared directions, and follow-up actions that last beyond a single event.
Alongside organising the event, our team also conducted expert interviews to capture perspectives on the future of urban planning and Europe’s HPC & AI ecosystem, supporting HiDALGO2’s wider communication and exploitation efforts.
We also contributed as speakers and moderators:
- Georgia Nikolakopoulou (Head of Dissemination, Future Needs) participated in the panel: “Digital Twins for Sustainable Cities: From Buildings to Urban Air”
- The panel was moderated by Kyriaki Daskaloudi (Innovation Project Manager, Future Needs)
A key theme echoed throughout the day was the need to communicate HPC and AI not only through technical milestones, but through tangible societal benefits – from protecting public health via better air-quality modelling to improving preparedness for climate-related risks.
