From the Flemish Researchers' point of view, investment in supercomputers, the specialized support and exchange of expertise should be centrally coordinated. With this purpose a Flemish supercomputer center, Vlaams Supercomputer Centrum (VSC) was created. The VSC is a consortium of the five Flemish universities: K.U.Leuven Association, Ghent University Association, Universitaire Associatie Brussel, Antwerp University Association and Associatie Universiteit-Hogescholen Limburg. The VSC is funded by the Flemish Government, Department of Economy, Science and Innovation and the Hercules Foundation.

The mission statement of the VSC is:

• The development and management of centrally coordinated computing facilities in Flanders to propel the Flemish researchers, the Flemish technology institutes and industrial R&D.
• Continued build-up of expertise and skills and provide necessary support for new and advanced users.
  
• The VSC is looking to join European projects; it follows and supports the European view on supercomputing.
  

Since the beginning of this century, both the Flemish government and the Flemish research institutes took many initiatives to build up an adequate supercomputer infrastructure. The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts (KVAB) and the e-Research Steering Committee published an assessment of the need for a dynamic High Performance Computing strategy in Flanders.

For the development and integration of supercomputer infrastructure and to build up a workforce at the Flemish research institutes, the Flemish government awarded a 2,4 M€ grant early 2009.

Based upon the advice of the Hercules Science Commission, the VSC consortium submitted a proposal that was aligned with the European HPC vision. In 2009, the Hercules Foundation awarded a grant of 2.1M€ which was supplemented in 2009 and 2010 with FFEU funding (Financieringsfonds voor schuldafbouw en Eenmalige Investeringsuitgaven) of respectively 5,2M€ and 5M€. The institutes that are part of the consortium co-finance for a total amount of 12M€.

To ensure the consortiums' business as usual in the second part of 2011, the Flemish government granted an additional 500k€.

To obtain a more structural funding a new business plan for 2012-2016 was submitted early 2011 to the Flemish government. Such a perpetual funding is really necessary to efficiently plan investments and build up a proper workforce. Although the structural funding is still pending, operational funding for 2012 (1.5M€) is already provided for by the Flemish Government.