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The NCI National Facility is funded under the NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration. The services provided by the NCI National Facility are the responsibility of the ANU under a contract with DEST for the "National Computational Infrastructure" (NCI) of the NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration. The Platforms for Collaboration plans are for the period 2008 until mid-2011.
The NCI National Facility will continue to provide an internationally competitive computational service for Australian researchers.
This call for applications applies to Computational Projects on the NCI National Facility.
The Merit Allocation Scheme provides resources on the National Facility to projects based on merit. Applications are called for grants for computational and data resources under this Scheme for the period of Jan 2009 - Dec 2009. The closing date for applications is 9 Nov 2008.
Note: 'Start-up Grants' are also available immediately to enable researchers to assess the usefulness of the National Facility for their research and to assist in framing proposals to the Scheme.
Resources Available
The major HPC computational resource at the NCI National Facility is an SGI Altix Cluster with 1928 processors with a peak speed of over 12 Tflops. A 152 node Linux cluster is also currently available. It should be noted that the NCI NF (under DEST NCI funding) has plans to increase the computational capacity available by slightly increasing the number of cycles in 2008 by the addition of a small development cluster, and a larger system procurement in 2009. The requests submitted via the MAS applications will help to verify the appropriateness of these timelines.
Details of the current National Facility resources can be found at http://nf.nci.org.au/facilities/
Who May Apply
Any staff member of an Australian Higher Education Institution or CSIRO may apply to the Merit Allocation Scheme (with certain restrictions imposed by USA export conditions). Postgraduate students should apply through their supervisors.How to Apply
Forms for applications to the Merit Allocation Scheme or for Start-Up Grants can be found at http://nf.nci.org.au/accounts/.Forms are provided for:
- Merit Allocation Scheme for Computational projects on the National Facility.
- Start-up Grants for computational projects on the National Facility
Applicants should read the policies and guidelines. The criteria for evaluating proposals can be found at http://nf.nci.org.au/policies/ . Proposals should be made to the Merit Allocation Scheme now, but in special circumstances may be made at any time.
Advice and Support
Advice on completing the forms may be obtained from the National Facility. National Facility staff are also available to discuss the suitability of the National Facility and its environment to the proposed project, or advise if other facilities might be more appropriate. They are also available to help with the installation and optimisation of programs and other software.Contact Details
for Merit Allocation Scheme Queries:
c/o ANUSF
Leonard Huxley Building (56)
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200Tel: (02) 6125 3437
Fax: (02) 6125 8199
http://nf.nci.org.au/