10.3 million euros for climate supercomputer: Minister Schüle hands over funding notification

08/23/2021 - The Minister of Research of the State of Brandenburg, Manja Schüle, today handed over a grant of 10.3 million euros to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) for the establishment of a new type of computer cluster for the analysis of scientific climate data. The new high-performance computer cluster on Potsdam's Telegrafenberg is necessary to enable the growing interest of the scientific community in linking climate data from a wide range of topics and research fields.
10.3 million euros for climate supercomputer: Minister Schüle hands over funding notification
Research Minister Dr. Manja Schüle (center) hands over the funding notification to Ottmar Edenhofer, PIK Director, and Bettina Hörstrup, Administrative Director of PIK.

Research Minister Dr. Manja Schüle explained: "Climate change does not only affect distant areas such as the Arctic or the Pacific islands - it also affects us in Brandenburg already now noticeably and directly. This is illustrated by the drought damage suffered by farmers in recent years or the increasing tree damage in our large landscape parks. The scientists at PIK use a wide variety of climate data to predict extreme weather events. But this requires state-of-the-art computers. Our answer: We help to procure powerful, energy-efficient and reliable high-performance computers! Today's funding is one of the largest investments from our Future Investment Fund - and goes to PIK quite rightly: The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is one of our country's highest-profile think tanks."

Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK: "The state of Brandenburg is making a really important contribution here to advance research. Only in this way can we make climate risks more and more concrete - and thus also create the basis for climate solutions. We are extremely grateful to the state for setting clear priorities here. Extreme weather and other climate impacts affect the whole world, including us in Brandenburg. Ultimately, research with the new supercomputer is about the security of us all - today and much more tomorrow."

The funding for PIK comes from the Future Investment Fund of the state of Brandenburg, which was also used to finance a new data storage system for the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) with 500,000 euros.


Contact:

PIK press office
Phone: +49 331 288 25 07
E-Mail:
Twitter: @PIK_Climate
www.pik-potsdam.de