Centre of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth - Factory

The ChEESE-Factory Centre of Excellence proposal is the successor to ChEESE-2P, aiming to consolidate the European computational leadership in Solid Earth science. The core strategy is grounded in a dual imperative: achieving enduring Exascale Ambition and driving deep AI/HPC Convergence. The project focuses on the sustained development of community flagship codes, pursuing optimized performance and scalability across EuroHPC platforms. This optimization includes a commitment to Green HPC by improving the energy efficiency of applications. These technical enhancements move toward establishing a service-oriented HPC engineering layer. A central innovation is the integration of Scientific Machine Learning methodologies to reduce time-to-solution and to lay the groundwork for developing Foundation Models tailored for geophysical systems. This involves developing AI Surrogates for hazard evaluation, implementing In-Code AI to accelerate expensive physics, harnessing Generative AI for ensemble augmentation in probabilistic forecasting. These scientific and software engineering advancements are validated through large-scale Simulation Cases as demonstrators of the optimized performance, AI integration, and novel multi-physics and multi-scale modelling capabilities within the flagship codes. A vital subset of these runs comprises Scientific Grand Challenges. This complete program aims at delivering high-TRL operational services, including urgent response systems and advanced probabilistic hazard forecasts. These services will be validated through user-driven Trials involving external stakeholders, resulting in the production of FAIR datasets. The proposal emphasizes maximizing scientific and societal impact through strategic communication and dissemination, ensuring robust collaboration and alignment with broader European initiatives and Research Infrastructures. The project addresses the HPC/AI skills gap in the SE Community by establishing a Permanent Summer School.