RIKEN R-CCS and CEA Renew Research Collaboration Memorandum to Strengthen Partnership: Signing Ceremony Held at CEA’s 80th Anniversary Celebration in the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai

RIKEN has been carrying out research collaboration with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives: CEA) based on a long-standing partnership. Now, the two institutes have reaffirmed their research collaboration through a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) and CEA on cooperation in the field of computational science and computer science, including “high-performance computing applications, AI, big data, quantum computing, system software development, performance analysis of new architectures, and operational technologies.” Under this MoU, the two organizations will promote research collaboration using the supercomputer Fugaku.
The MoU was signed on July 1 at the French Pavilion in the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai as part of the CEA's 80th anniversary ceremony. At the ceremony, Dr. Satoshi Matsuoka, Director of R-CCS, gave a lecture titled “Collaboration in the field of HPC with CEA and other European institutions.” In the lecture, he described the strength and depth of the relationship between R-CCS and CEA, as well as the shared mission of the two organizations to pioneer research in computational science and computer science.
The collaboration between RIKEN and CEA began in 2017 with the signing of an initial agreement on computational science and computer science in high-performance computing^{*(Note 1)}. Since then, the two organizations have held biannual “CEA-RIKEN Workshops” to deepen their collaboration, working closely together to develop and optimize scientific applications in key fields such as natural disasters, materials science, and plasma physics, along with the supporting system software, thereby advancing supercomputing technologies for both parties.
Under this framework, an additional MoU was signed between R-CCS and CEA in November 2021 to promote more specific research collaboration activities. As a result of this MoU-based collaboration, an international research team including researchers from R-CCS, CEA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), and others conducted a study on the design of an innovative plasma-based particle accelerator. This research was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize at the 2022 International Conference on High Performance Computing (HPC), an international conference on high-performance computing technology ^{*(Note 2)}. “ The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC22)” 。
Subsequently, the two institutes continued to expand their cooperative relationship, revising the agreement between RIKEN and CEA in 2022 to include the field of quantum computing. Since the revision, discussions on quantum computing have become particularly active at the CEA-RIKEN workshops ^{*(Note 3)}, encouraging deeper exchanges and joint research opportunities between researchers from both institutions.
Building on these successes, the MoU between R-CCS and CEA was amended to include the development of performance prediction tools, a multi-threaded version of MPI ^{*(Note 4)}, and support for earthquake simulation code modules on Fugaku.
In both Japan and France, under a common strategic vision of high-performance computing technology, high-performance computing is regarded as a foundation for numerical simulation and big data processing, as well as a key driving force for scientific excellence, industrial innovation, and economic resilience. National initiatives for exascale computing are actively being pursued, and cooperation is being strengthened through co-design efforts that connect academia, research institutions, and industry.
RIKEN and CEA are technologically aligned in many areas, including the adoption of the Arm architecture, the development of an open software ecosystem, interoperability, collaboration with industry, and the cultivation of a user ecosystem.
Furthermore, this partnership is playing a crucial role in nurturing the next generation of scientists and engineers beyond research collaboration by actively supporting exchange programs and joint research opportunities for young researchers between Japan and France.
R-CCS and CEA will continue their collaboration in high-performance computing, guided by a shared vision of shaping the future through innovation, openness, and scientific excellence.