Presentations from Horizon 2020 Information Seminar held at Hilton Hotel 28th November 2013

1. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
FP7 Case Study: NanoStreams
Professor Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos

2. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
About me
• Professor and DR, School of EEECS QUB
• US academic background
• Computing systems researcher
– High-performance computing
– Processor and memory architectures
– System software and firmware
– Languages and compilers
– System integration
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
2

3. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
How did NanoStreams start?
• Neither from an EU ICT Work Programme nor from a
call target
– A clearly identified challenge that merits investigation
from an excellent consortium
• Critical mass in the financial trading sector in Belfast
– Extreme performance requirements, at odds with
technology trends towards energy-efficient servers
• Solutions considered required disruptive changes that
span the entire computing software & hardware stack
– Could not be possibly solved by a University, SME, or even
multi-national
– First hint to consider an EU project
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
3

4. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
How did NanoStreams evolve?
Context
– Real-time analytics on streaming data require extremely
high performance and low latency
– Critical for important markets: capital markets, ICU
monitoring, fraud detection, business intelligence,…
– Currently supported by servers with high TCO
• Idea
– Can a low-cost server of a size of a wallet be used instead?
• Motivation
– Facebook stripped-down micro-servers
•
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
4

5. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
How did NanoStreams
evolve into an EU ICT project
• Contemplated several funding alternatives
– Hard to involve SMEs and industry as funded
partners in RCUK
– Limited funding, small “demos” supported from
instruments like TSB
• Critical mass of expertise available in the UK
but important components missing:
• Compilers for application-specific processors
• Real-time operating systems
• Major server vendors not UK-based
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
5

6. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Reading (behind) the EU call
“Synergies between High Performance
Computing and Embedded Systems to address a
common challenge”
• High performance from a computing system
with a low carbon and space footprint
– What is common between a smartphone and a
datacentre server box
– Embedded many-core processors running highperformance parallel software
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
6

7. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
NanoStreams
(in a picture worth a thousand words)
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
7

8. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
NanoStreams Consortium
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
8

9. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Why was NanoStreams funded?
• Clearly identified challenge and a need
• Perfect match to the call
• Strong participation by industry and in particular SMEs
– SMEs that develop (and not just use) technology
– Large corporates that are ideal customers for SMEs
– Job creation, economic impact
• Internationally excellent consortium, complementarity
• A unique product proposition based on European technology
– With potential US uptakers
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
9

10. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Importance of networking
• Instruments leveraged to establish a
consortium
– ECIT/CSIT commercial team
– European Network of Excellence in High
Performance and Embedded Architectures and
Compilers (HiPEAC)
– Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe
(PRACE)
– Personal contacts
– “Dear John” emails
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
10

11. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Proposal writing process
• 10-page draft from Coordinator circulated September’12
• Work-packages and roles discussed in F2F meeting in Paris
and drafted October’12
• Distributed writing
– Each WP lead by a different partner
– Part B1 written by technical coordinator, with on-demand
contributions by other partners
– Part B2 written by a research engineer with prior experience in
coordinating EU projects
– Part B3 written jointly by one SME and one corporate
• First draft completed November’12
• Continuous major and then minor revisions until
submission in January’13
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
11

12. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The importance of chemistry
• Partners have previously worked together in
clusters
– QUB, IBM, FORTH (TEXT project)
– Analytics Engines, ACE (commercialisation effort)
– Neueda, Credit Suisse (commercialisation effort)
• Excellent inter-personal relationships
• Understanding the cultural background,
business environment and financial climate
was important
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
12

13. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Working with the Commission
• Get to know your Project Officer as best as you can
– Technical background, cultural background, preferred
means of communication, style, track record, experiences
of others…
• Experience may vary dramatically
– NanoStreams: 30-minute negotiations meeting, 4 talking
points, 1 major and 3 minor revisions of the DoW
– CACTOS: 3-hour negotiations meeting, including a 1-hour
project presentation 37 talking points, ~50 revisions of the
DoW. 10+ major revisions
– ASAP: day-long negotiations meeting, 127 talking points
(12 pages of comments), 130+ revisions of the DoW
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
13

14. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Working with the Commission
• Your PO may change any time
– Unnamed FP7-ICT-Call 8 project
– 4 POs in 3 years
– PO A, B, and C conducted project reviews and
approved Good and then Excellent ratings
– PO D returned all dissemination deliverables as
unacceptable, threatened with a poor rating, and
then threatened to recover the funding of a major
UK semi-conductor IP company
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
14

15. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The benefits of participating…
• A broader talent base
– Increased chances to work with the very best in a number
of disciplines
• A broader funding base
– More funding instruments, higher budgets
• A broader market base
– Industry engagement, industrial R&D and take-up are
essential (and not cosmetic) requirements of these
projects
• More pathways to impact
– Companies working with academics to develop new
products and services
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
15

16. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The benefits of not participating…
• Administrative overhead
– Extensive reporting requirements
– Annual (and oftentimes semi-annual) reviews
– Extensive travel
• Management difficulties
– Integration towards a common vision, common set of tools, common
outcomes
– Multiple accounting systems, research cultures, product development
cultures, people cultures…
– Under-performing partners, weakest links, workload imbalance…
• Inappropriate instrument for blue sky research
– Projects and not programmes
– Tight timeline, small horizon, many checkpoints
– Too much integration effort
November 28, 2013
H2020 ICT Info Day
16

17. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Would I do it again?
Absolutely!
but never attempt to coordinate more
than one projects simultaneously 

18. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
FP7 Case Study: NanoStreams
Professor Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos