Contents
- Background
- Merit Allocation Scheme (MAS)
- Facilities Available
- Who May Apply
- How to Apply
- Advice and Support
Background
National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)provides Australian researchers with access to world-class high-end computing services. NCI was established in 2007 under the NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration Program through an agreement between the Australian National University (ANU) and the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR). Today, its work is supported by the Australian Government through NCRIS and by a number of co-investing partner organisations, ANU, CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Monash University, iVEC, QCIF and Intersect Australia. Access to NCI facilities and services is available in two ways, through:
- Merit Allocation - in which resources are allocated to public sector researchers on merit through a process which assesses applications on their research quality and computational needs, and
- Partner Shares - in which organisations subscribe to a share of NCI resources and manage this allocation internally through their own processes.
Merit Allocation Scheme (MAS)
Resources available under the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme are provided for by Commonwealth (NCRIS) funding and are available to researchers at Australian universities and publicly funded research agencies (e.g., CSIRO, AIMS, ANSTO, GA, BoM). Under present NCRIS arrangements, researchers granted access under this scheme are not charged for the resources provided. MAS applications are assessed according to the quality of the research to be supported, the appropriateness of the NCI facilities for the project, the justification for the resources requested, and the track record of the research team in the use of high-end computing. Further details about the selection criteria are available here.
Facilities Available
This call seeks applications for access at each of three NCI facilities:
- the National Facility,
- the Specialised Facility in Bioinformatics,
- the Specialised Facility in Imaging and Visualisation (MASSIVE).
| NationalFacility | The NCI National Facility is home to Australia’s peak computing
environment and offers expert support for high- end computing
applications and large scale data management. The new peak system
(vayu), installed in 2009/2010, is a Sun Constellation
of approximately 12,000 compute cores, 36 TBytes of memory, 800 TBytes
of disk storage, a peak performance of 140 Tflops, and provides an
extensive software library that covers the gamut of scientific
applications. For 2011, the value of resources on vayu will be
approximately $0.12 per core hour, an amount which can be stated as an
in-kind contribution to research granting bodies such as the ARC.
The NCI National Facility can also assist with all facets of data-intensive computation including analysis, collection management, curation, and fast databases, and offers large scale storage in its data cloud which is being upgraded for 2011. Additional information about the National Facility services, infrastructure, software, and support is available at this website, with expert assistance with regard to making applications to the MAS being available from |
| Specialised Facility in Bioinformatics (QFAB) |
This Specialised Facility (SF) provides access to computational
resources, datasets, applications, support and expertise in
bioinformatics. The computational infrastructure supporting the SF has
been substantially upgraded by the University of Queensland during
2010 and, in the first instance, will provide up to 1000 cores and
approximately 30TB of storage for the SF.
The NCI MAS has access to approximately 20% of these resources, with the services and datasets available being listed on the QFAB website. Services will be available from January 2011 and expert assistance of relevance to applying for these resources can be obtained from . |
| Specialised Facility in Imaging and Visualisation (MASSIVE) |
The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation
Environment (MASSIVE) is a national high - performance computing
facility for computational imaging and visualisation, with services
commencing from March 2011. MASSIVE will provide the infrastructure,
software and expertise to help scientists apply advanced imaging and
visualisation techniques across a range of fields, but with a
particular focus in characterisation.
MASSIVE will provide two high performance computing facilities, located at the Australian Synchrotron and Monash University, designed for data processing and visualisation and available in both interactive and batch modes, specialist imaging and visualisation software, and expertise in visualisation, image processing and analysis, and GPU computing. Additional information is available at http://www.massive.org.au/nci-merit-allocation, with specific and expert assistance, of relevance to the application process, being available from . |
Who May Apply?
The Merit Allocation Scheme is available to researchers in publicly funded research organisations. This includes universities, organisations such as CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, ANSTO, and the NCRIS Capability areas.
Post-graduate students at universities may not apply in their own right to the NCI MAS but, instead, should be associated with projects in which their supervisors are Chief Investigators.
This call for applications to the MAS closes on extended to 9am 11 November 2011.
How to Apply?
Forms for applications to the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme can be found at http://nf.nci.org.au/accounts/.
Before applying, applicants should read the NCI National Facility policies and guidelines and also the criteria for evaluating MAS proposals.
Advice and Support
Assistance in completing the application form may be obtained from NCI staff at
Assistance with regard to assessing the suitability of the National Facility, or either of the Specialised Facilities, for projects proposed by researchers should be directed to the respective facility operators