The Regional Benchmark is a systematic assessment of availability and access to HPC infrastructure, of the levels of awareness, HPC providers and competence centres, as well as needs and usage of HPC among enterprises, particularly SMEs, which covers the entire Danube region.

The Benchmark therefore focuses on both HPC providers and competence centres and on potential users from the electronic and automotive industry. It also allows identifying possible opportunities for utilization of HPC technology for development of innovative products in line with the regional smart specialization strategies or other relevant strategies where smart specialization strategies were not yet developed (non-EU regions).

Regional audit data collection will be based on joint templates, which will allow collecting the relevant information providing detailed and comparable perspective on situation in the Danube region.

Data collection relies on desktop research and semi-structured aiming relevant stakeholders. The desktop research and semi-structured interviews were carried out in 14 countries, where the division of responsibilities were attributed among partners. As such, for Austria - RISC SW is responsible for collecting the necessary information and conducting the interviews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, SERDA is reliable for the work, and REGLO for Bulgaria. In Croatia it is CNRM, meanwhile for Czech Republic it is IT4I. FIS, on the other hand is responsible for Germany and Ukraine. For Moldova it is UVT, meanwhile for Romania – UEFISCDI. In Montenegro the partners from RDA BKP will conduct the desktop research, and have interviews with relevant stakeholders. In the remaining countries, REDASP undergoes the work in Serbia, TUKE in Slovakia, and CCIS-EEEA in Slovenia.

The work done so far, along with the obtained information will result in several outputs:

• Digital Transformation of Industry Guidelines
• Cataloguing Institutional Absorptive Capacity
• Cataloguing Regional HPC Capacities
• Regional HPC Mapping

The final one from the list is detailed database mapping regional HPC supply, needs as well as the gaps between the two. This HPC map is also the first element of the one-stop-shop offered online, due to its usability for industry as well.