Destination Earth (DestinE) was once again featured at the annual meeting of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). Since its launch, the initiative of the European Commission to build a digital replica of the Earth system, DestinE has been a regular participant in the EuroHPC Summit. DestinE builds on the HPC capabilities provided by EuroHPC JU and is considered a strategic European initiative, with special access granted to EuroHPC systems. Director of Forecasts and Services at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Florian Pappenberger and Director for DestinE at ECMWF Irina Sandu were in Kraków on 19 March to participate in a dedicated session.
The third EuroHPC Summit gathered more than 1,000 participants in Kraków, bringing together the key players of the European and international HPC ecosystem to the country holding the Presidency of the EU Council for the semester. This edition focused on “Connecting HPC, quantum and AI communities.” The EU Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Democracy, Henna Virkkunen delivered the opening speech, highlighting the importance of working together. “In these critical times for Europe, I cannot stress enough the importance of working together. United, we can build unique infrastructures to ensure our global leadership and sovereignty,” she said.
The EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology DG CNECT leads the DestinE initiative and is also driving efforts to develop a network of European AI factories that leverage EuroHPC’s supercomputing capabilities. The EuroHPC JU has already selected 13 proposals that will establish AI factories across Europe.
The opening panel also featured the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Dariusz Stanterski and Maria Mrówczyńska, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, Rafał Duczmal, Chair of the Governing Board at EuroHPC JU and EuroHPC JU Executive Director Anders Jensen. The session set the stage for discussions on European AI factories, the fast developments on quantum computing developments and the future of HPC in Europe.
“The main goal of the summit is always unchanged. We want to create a space where you, members of the HPC, AI and Quantum communities, can talk to each other, coin new links, find new partners and strengthen the existing partnerships. The summit programme is designed to facilitate that,” said Duczmal in his opening speech emphasizing that these communities must act as one.
DestinE, paradigm of European cooperation for digital twin technology and AI
The value of DestinE, as a model of European cooperation, and its synergies with the upcoming European AI factories were at the heart of the parallel session “Destination Earth” on Wednesday 19 March. The packed room at Kraków’s ICE Congress Centre reflected the high level of interest in the initiative.
Grazyna Piesiewicz, Head of Unit of HPC at the European Commission’s DG CNECT, opened the session with a keynote highlighting innovations made possible by DestinE’s digital twins, underpinned by the European HPC capabilities and the strategic partnership with EuroHPC JU.
The DestinE system in action – Unlocking digital twin capabilities
The first panel explored the new frontiers in Earth system simulations enabled by DestinE’s digital twins, driven by the large interdisciplinary collaborative effort involving more than a hundred institutions across Europe.
Moderated by EuroHPC JU programme manager for infrastructure, Athanasia Evangelinou the session gathered ECMWF’s Irina Sandu, Grazyna Piesiewicz, Head of Unit for HPC at the European Commission’s DG CNECT, Kat Grayson, researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Christoph Wittmann Head of Department “Analysis and Model Development” at Geosphere Austria and Michal Kulczewski from the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC).
Irina Sandu focused on the two digital twins – on climate change adaptation and extreme events – which enable simulating plausible “what-if” scenarios regarding climate evolution and extreme events impacts. She highlighted the key achievements so far and the next steps towards operationalizing the digital twin technology. She also emphasized the role of EuroHPC world-class supercomputers and the strength of Europe’s collaborative scientific and technological networks.
“What we have accomplished in such a short time through this hugely collaborative effort – building on expertise and partnerships within the European Meteorological Infrastructure – is amazing. I am confident our experience can inform and inspire other major initiatives in AI, HPC and quantum computing, especially the AI factories,” said Irina Sandu.
Kat Grayson and Christoph Wittmann gave concrete examples of how the digital twins benefit the sectors most impacted by climate change, such as l urban management and renewable energy.
Other topics discussed included how to ensure that DestinE provides actionable data for users and key stakeholders in European Member States.
From DestinE to AI Factories: Lessons in Collaboration, Data and AI Workflows
The second panel of the session explored how the DestinE model of technical, scientific and institutional cooperation could serve as a blueprint for the development of AI factories – at a time when AI has become a strategic priority for Europe.
ECMWF’s Deputy Director General and Director of Forecasts and Services Florian Pappenberger conducted a lively conversation between Josephine Wood, Head of Unit Strategy and Governance at EuroHPC JU and representatives of the hosting entities for the EuroHPC supercomputers that leveraged in DestinE: Mariona Sanz Head of Innovation and Business Development at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Marenostrum 5), Gabriella Scipione, Head of Data Management and Analytics at CINECA (Leonardo), Jenni Kontkannen, Development Manager in Digital Twin Technologies at CSC (Lumi), and Valentin Plugaru CTO of LuxProvide(Meluxina).
The panel highlighted how DestinE’s experience offers valuable insights into building AI Factories, since DestinE developments can be leveraged to deliver the intended benefits of the AI factories in the area of climate change adaptation and preparedness.
Topics ranged from software co-evolution across HPC sites to the integration of domain-specific tools and workflows.
“The digital twin data and AI tooling we’re developing at ECMWF within DestinE will be a key input for the emerging AI Factories. This panel made it clear that the lessons we’ve learned—around large-scale collaboration, data interoperability, and domain-specific AI workflows—are highly relevant. DestinE and the AI Factories are closely aligned, and there are strong synergies that will help accelerate their development,” said Florian Pappenberger.
The conversation also touched on democratizing access, enabling interoperability across supercomputing sites, and the technological breakthroughs needed to scale Europe’s AI ecosystem.
Florian Pappenberger, Irina Sandu, and ECMWF’s Ioan Hadade (team lead for HPC applications) also participated in the Career Fair, engaging with emerging talents from the AI and HPC communities at a time of tremendous opportunity for European tech.
The successful EuroHPC Summit in Kraków 2025 reflected a vibrant moment for HPC, AI and quantum in Europe—with new developments constantly enhancing our ability to simulate, understand, and respond to climate change and its far-reaching impacts on the Earth system.
Destination Earth is a European Union-funded initiative launched in 2022, with the aim to build a digital replica of the Earth system by 2030. The initiative is being jointly implemented under the leadership of DG CNECT by three entrusted entities: the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), responsible for the creation of the first two ‘digital twins’ and the ‘Digital Twin Engine’, the European Space Agency (ESA) responsible for building the ‘Core Service Platform’, and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), responsible for the creation of the ‘Data Lake’.
We acknowledge the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking for awarding this project strategic access to the EuroHPC supercomputers LUMI, hosted by CSC (Finland), and the LUMI consortium, Marenostrum5, hosted by BSC (Spain) Leonardo, hosted by Cineca (Italy) and MeluXina, hosted by LuxProvide (Luxembourg) through a EuroHPC Special Access call.
More information about Destination Earth is on the Destination Earth website and the EU Commission website.
For more information about ECMWF’s role visit ecmwf.int/DestinE
For any questions related to the role of ECMWF in Destination Earth, please use the following email links: