The long-term vision of the upgraded center to be realized in Phase-2 of the project revolves around five themes:

1. Simulation and data science fundamentals, tools and services: Development of methodologies, tools and services, including, mathematical modeling, scalable data analytics and simulations algorithms, statistical inference, data management, mining and visualization, data sharing and security, exascale programming tools, and workflows for data intensive-science, under a Transversal Lab.
2. Simulation and data-driven research: Utilization of the Transversal Lab methodologies to enable scientific breakthroughs in the key areas of Digital Cultural Heritage, Health and Life Sciences, Solar Energy, Earth System Science and Physical Sciences in alignment with the smart specialization strategy of Cyprus (S3Cy).
3. Government and Industry: Delivering of applications of tangible innovation potential in partnership with public and private institutions. FZJ brings in strong expertise from its industry relations team and its activities as part of the German national Smart Data Innovation Lab (SDIL).
4. Education: Development of graduate educational and training programs including the advancement of educational methods in a data-rich world.
5. Infrastructure: Designing and building the knowledge environment and infrastructure for a sustainable operation and provisioning of compute- and data-intensive services to the broader user communities, allowing the center to promote the science hub role of CyI in the EM region, collaborate with local and EM institutions and facilities, provide advanced training, and access to infrastructure, and to technical and scientific competencies.

The concept for a Cetner of Excellence (CoE) in Simulation and Data Science emerges from the current strengths of CaSToRC and the new challenges and opportunities arising across many seemingly unrelated academic and applied fields from the ever-growing quantity of data generated, collected, processed, archived, analyzed, and visualized. Building on the strengths of CaSToRC and joining forces with FZJ we will create a center in Cyprus that can excel in research and education, become a leader in SIMDAS in Cyprus and the EM region, and pioneer fields of great societal and economic impact for Cyprus and the region. Indeed without such a center Cyprus faces the threat of lagging behind the rest of Europe and the world. It is clear that without the tools and competencies to enable computational scientists to efficiently manage and explore large-scale data they cannot remain competitive both in terms of scientific output and of securing funding. Serving the EM region, teaming researchers with FZJ and leveraging the NCSA collaboration agreement and CaSToRC regional and international networks the center can spearhead collaboration in SIMDAS among scientists from EM countries expanding its impact beyond Cyprus and use science for promoting understanding among nations at war as CERN and SESAME envisioned.