Research Council of Finland grants funding to the University of Finland for international collaboration in high-performance computing

The funding will support the use of EuroHPC’s high-performance computing resources and the LUMI supercomputer within the framework of international research collaboration. The funding helps develop a versatile future computing ecosystem and expand computing expertise in Finland and globally.

Professor of Chemistry Karoliina Honkala received nearly €500,000 in funding for a project aimed at creating accelerated and accurate simulations to unravel the factors controlling bio-alcohol oxidation oxidation. The project combines expertise in advanced computational methods, electrocatalysis, and HPC to investigate alcohol electro-oxidation in electrocatalytic production of hydrogen and valuable organic products. By exploring how the electrochemical interface and reaction conditions impact electro-oxidation activity and selectivity, the project advances the development of electrocatalytic applications.

Professor of Chemistry Gerrit Groenhof received approximately €460,000 in funding for a project investigating Molecular Dynamics with explicit protons on exa-scale supercomputers. Simulations are used to compute trajectories of all atoms in a molecule, such as proteins. From such trajectories important information about the system is obtained that can be used for example to develop new drugs against diseases. We had previously developed a method that we will now use on modern supercomputers to address two important problems in structural biology: How do biomolecules recognize or sense each other, and what is the mechanism by which proteins can convert chemical energy into mechanical work.