# MultiXscale WP1+WP5 sync meetings

- Monthly, every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 09:30 CE(S)T
- Notes of previous meetings at https://github.com/multixscale/meetings/wiki

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## Next meetings

- Tue 11 Nov 2025 09:30 CEST
- bank holiday in Belgium...
- Tue 9 Dec 2025 09:30 CEST
- Tue 13 Jan 2026 09:30 CEST
- Tue 10 Feb 2026 09:30 CEST
- Tue 10 Mar 2026 09:30 CEST

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## Agenda/notes 2025-10-14

attendees:
- Pedro
- Kenneth
- Caspar
- Susana
- Thomas
- Satish
- Guilia
- Petra
- Alan

- taking away 1 PM for SURF (due to higher PM rate, inflation)
- Caspar: underspending in WP6, so thinking about consuming from that
- also from WP1+WP5, proportional to effort
- Thomas: also underspending in WP6
- started Happy Hours because of this, could be spending 3PMs if we keep this up until end of the project
- repeat of webinars could be another PM
- overspending in one WP, underspending in another is fine in practice
- for UGent: transferring PMs to travel budget, taking it from WP5

- Caspar: look into short videos focusing on a particular topic (WP6)
- just a couple of minutes
- complements Happy Hours, more focused
- software-specific (Espresso, OBMD, ...)
- instruction video on dev.eessi.io, ...
- Kenneth will make proposal with topics/scenarios
- motivation for EESSI
- EESSI hands-on demo
- EESSI in CI
- CIT @ UGroningen has some proper equipment for this
-

- Alan no longer working at Univ. of Barcelona since end of Sept'25
- impact on Technical Manager role?
- Ignacio is trying to find a replacement

### Report on 2nd review

- points relevant to WP1+WP5+WP6+WP7 (Petra)
- WP1
- what do they mean with "reproducibility layer"?
- => ask them to clarify? compat layer? software layer?
- maybe better not to ask for clarifications
- immutable release snapsots, DOI-tagged versions
- tag specific revision of CVMFS repository, put DOI tag on it
- make sure we don't garbage collect these!
- need to sync with Bob on this
- document that specifies how to access that revision, what's in it, etc.
- incl. overview of available software?
- combo of compat+software layer, across all GPU targets
- how often should we do this?
- attaching this to bi-monthly EESSI update meetings
- container images or squashfs exports for these EESSI "releases"
- first step towards "archiving" old EESSI releases
- can be mounted in container with Apptainer
- start with minimal report, gradually improve that
- tagged revision + instructions on how to get access to this specific revision
- keep track of mapping between DOI and revision in `EESSI/filesystem-layer`
- also document/demonstrate how this helps scientific WPs
- blog post showing how to run Espresso/OBMD/...
- comprehensive rebuild/run instructions
- insufficient docs on RISC-V & Arm
- no overview of available software for RISC-V
- Arm
- docs on CPU detection, structure of repo
- migration of legacy software modules to newest GPU generations
- already done now?
- we're building for all supported GPU generations already now (not yet at time of review)
- GPU software installations have now been reinstalled in new structure (inc. CUDA sanity check)
- we will also support Blackwell when relevant
- WP5
- documentation lacks behind rapid development
- software overview missing for EESSI 2025.06 & GPU software
- also PR on squashfs
- missing reproducility practices
- document procedure used to reproduce installations for other CPU targets
- cfr. work done by Bob/Caspar
- cfr. changes made to EasyBuild
- will be relevant soon again for `zen5` + `graviton4` builds in EESSI 2025.06
- testing should cover edge architectures, mixed CPU/GPU nodes, coupled workflows
- what's meant with "edge architectures"?
- mixed CPU/GPU nodes => already done?
- not running tests for CUDA installations on Snellius yet, Caspar will fix this (by setting EESSI_ACCEL_OVERRIDE)
- coupled workflows => portable tests coming for OBMD & co
- scaling up of human resources (amendment?)
- risk of increased support load due to EFP
- (Thomas) set up regular meeting with sites?
- strictly speaking requests not connected to scientific WPs is out-of-scope for MultiXscale
- there's no room to scale up human resources in MultiXscale, not planned
- WP6
- retention of ambassadors
- more engagement/feedback from ambassadors?
- more relevant to Transversal CoE
- get people to refer themselves as ambassador for EESSI
- clear instructions for ambassadors to give training themselves
- maybe via Software Carpentry
- make connection with EVITA project in last year of MultiXscale
- => reach out to them
- document ambassadors in EESSI docs
- list of ambassadors (after they agree)
- make it clear what it means to be an ambassador
- share promo material
- (traning) content should be regularly updated
- EESSI Happy Hours
- also planned repeat of webinars
- ISC'26 tutorial proposal
- better metrics to identify impact (of training sessions)
- EESSI user surveys
- 6 months after hackathon/webinar/...
- for webinars => Nov'25
- for hackathon => March'26
- assess uptake of using EESSI in CI
- ask them if they're using EESSI, for what, on which systems, ...
- EESSI system surveys
- update of EESSI
- provide tooling to evaluate this
- usage metrics for EESSI through Stratum-1 mirrors, friendly sites sharing info on proxy usage
- scaling of training infrastructure
- Magic Castle allows scaling up according to attendance
- hybrid format helps with scaling
- cluster-as-a-service for ambassadors
- integration of EESSI in EOSC
- WP7
- Business and Sustainability Plan (D7.3)
- governance/ownership models post-M48, leveraging EFP
- funding mechanisms => services, sponsorship, tenders
- services:
- sponsorship:
- 10k/year as "gold" sponsor, logo on website
- 50k/year as "diamant" sponsor, priority on support requests
- in-kind sponsorship
- people contributing to EESSI, donating their time, building expertise
- AWS to keep hardware resources
- support for tenders to solicit help for implementing features, onboarding software, ...
- comes with overhead: writing tenders, evaluating tenders, legal aspects, ...
- exploring making EESSI a Linux Foundation project
- legal entity to accept sponsorship
- robust KPIs for adoption, retention
- robust KPIs for adoption, retention
- some work done in EFP would help here
- strengthening of qualitative metrics (outreach -> adoption)
- user/system surveys
- companies using it (StackHPC, Accenture, Nextmol)
- try to engage with "lurkers" through focused webinars
- business oriented messaging
- D7.5
- WP8
- risk mitigation should be improved
- recommendations
- EIC Market Place
- we should ask them to clarify the recommendations
- https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/eic-pathfinder_en ?
- Giulia: platform for *companies*, to let them scale up
- maybe helicopter case?
- exploitation brief for each exploitable result
- EESSI + one of each showcase?
- to go into final report, or D7.3?

### Deliverables/milestones due in coming months

- ...

### WP status updates

- WP1 (SURF - Caspar)
- ...
- WP5 (UGent - Kenneth)
- ...
- WP6
- WP7

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## Notes of previous meetings

see https://github.com/multixscale/meetings/wiki

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