About the HNSciCloud Pre-Commercial Procurement
The Helix Nebula – the Science Cloud is a €5.3 million Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) tender for the establishment of a European hybrid cloud platform to support the deployment of high-performance computing and big-data capabilities for scientific research.
It covered the procurement of R&D services for the design, prototype development and pilot use of innovative cloud services. The tender wss operated as a competitive development with contracts in each phase (design, prototype, pilot) being awarded to multiple contractors using Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) criterion. The innovative cloud services provided through the platform were designed and implemented to address a set of challenges that require a combination of services at the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) level:
- Compute and Storage – support a range of virtual machines and container configurations working with datasets in the petabyte range;
- Network Connectivity and Federated Identity Management – provide high-end network capacity for the whole platform with common identity and access management;
- Service Payment Models - explore a range of purchasing options to determine the most appropriate ones for the scientific application workloads that will be deployed.
The procured cloud services were integrated with the procurers’ in-house resources and publicly funded e-Infrastructures to provide a hybrid platform for end-users from a wide range of scientific fields (See the HNSciCloud User Groups).
Facts about HNSciCloud
- Scope of the procurement: Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement of Cloud Services
- Estimated total value: Value excluding VAT: 5 383 332.00 EUR
- Lead procurer: CERN
- Start date: January 2016 | End date: End of 2018
- Prior Information Notice; Contract Notice
- 2 November 2016 - Design Phase tender awarded
- February 2017 - Assessment of the design phase deliverables
- 3 April 2017 - Prototype Phase award ceremony
- 6 February 2018 - Launch of the Pilot Phase
- 29 November 2018 - Results of the Pilot Phase
NEWS & EVENTS

HNSciCloud results part of the Copernicus MOOC

CERN winner of the Procura+ Awards 2019

CERN shortlisted in the Innovation Procurement of the Year" by the Procura+ Awards 2019
PICSE Wizard facilitating cloud procurement for public research organisations
PICSE Wizard (http://wiz.picse.eu): Cloud service procurement made easy!
Are you a Procurement official, IT manager or procurement initiator? Then, complete the PICSE wizard easy-to-use services to help you make informed decisions about how to procure cloud services. The PICSE Wizard is a web-based application that public research organisations can use to obtain guidelines on the most suitable model for procuring cloud services, to make a self-assessment and evaluate their procurement procedures. Each checklist comes with a set of recommendations & tips.
Who's behind HNSciCloud?
HNSciCloud Pre-Commercial Procurement is driven by ten leading research organisations from across Europe.