Funding opportunity - Merit Allocation Scheme of National Computational Infrastructure
Posted on: October 20th, 2008 by Kate BarrettApplications to the Merit Allocation Scheme (MAS) of National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) which provides Australian researchers with access to world-class high-end computing services are now open.
This call seeks applications from researchers in universities and publicly funded research organisations (covered by the NCRIS Capabilities) for computational resources (processor time and related data storage) on the NCI National Facility. Under the MAS, resources are allocated to researchers on merit through a process which assesses applications on their research quality and computational requirements and needs.
During 2009-10, NCI will be enhancing Australia’s peak computational facilities by an order of magnitude, with the installation of a new tier 1 computing facility being acquired through a joint procurement, currently underway, involving the Bureau of Meteorology and the ANU.
In 2009, the facilities that will be available are:
- the current peak system- a SGI Altix 3700 with 1928 processors and with a peak speed of over 12 Tflops,
- a new development system- a SGI Altix XE 1300 with 1248 cores, and a peak speed of around 6 Tflops, to be installed in November 2008,
- the first phase of the next-generation peak facility scheduled for mid-late 2009.
Access under the MAS is provided for by Commonwealth (NCRIS) funding and thus researchers provided with resources under this scheme are not charged by NCI for the services provided. For 2009, the value of these resources is approximately $0.40 per core hour, an amount which can be stated as an in-kind contribution to research granting bodies (e.g., ARC).
The closing date for applications is Sunday, 9 November 2008 (4 November to the Offie of Research).
All applications are completed online.
The attached document provides some additional background and information about the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme which recently has been reworked in a number of ways to improve its alignment with other competitive granting schemes, and also to enhance the uniformity of the quality of applications.