Access

• merit based access which, in keeping with NCRIS principles, provides for researchers in publicly funded research institutions to apply for resources on the National Facility and Specialised Facilities.
  
• partner and affiliate access, in which partner organisations can buy, at full operating cost, a share of resources on the National Facility (and possibly Specialised Facilities), while affiliates can acquire a fixed level of resources for the year in which they invest.

Merit Allocation Scheme

Under the MAS, research groups apply for computational time in October for the following year, with an application (of approximately four pages) that specifies the research being undertaken, the track record of the research team, the resources required and a justification for those resources.  A mid-year call is made to pick up typically smaller requests from groups not ready for the major annual round. 

The MAC also considers requests outside the usual round, particularly for priority users such as high profile research teams whose needs cannot wait for the annual merit allocation round.

Principles and Criteria

NCI MAS (Processor Resources)

The assessment criteria for high performance computing applications under MAS are:

-    Research quality

• research merit including the potential of the work to generate new knowledge in an important area, the comparative scientific merits of the work within its discipline, originality and international competitiveness;
• national benefit;
• experience and demonstrated research capacity of the applicant and the project team.

-    Appropriateness of the NCI computational resources:

• the need for such resources to conduct the research.
• suitability of the system (hardware and software) and its operational environment to support the project;
• evidence or experience to demonstrate that the project will use the facilities efficiently.

-    Reasonableness of the level of resources requested:

• relative to the total amount available;
• needed to make adequate progress in the proposed research program.

-    Track record of the applicant in using the NCI computational resources where relevant:

• in the case of proposals for continuation of a project, the record of achievement and the efficient use of previous allocations.
  

Merit Allocation Committee

The Merit Allocation Committee for 2008 is:

           Prof Brian Yates, University of Tasmania (Chair)

           Prof Geoff Bicknell, Australian National University

           Assoc. Prof Jim Denier, University of Adelaide

           Prof Julian Gale, Curtin University of Technology

           Assoc Prof Louis Moresi, Monash University

           Prof Mark Ragan, University of Queensland

           Vacancy (CSIRO)

           Vacancy (NSW based)

Partner and Affiliate Access

Partner and affiliate access is the mechanism by which organisations can acquire dedicated access to the facilities at full operating cost (which includes the cost of the system and any upgrades, necessary ancillary infrastructure (e.g., power and cooling), facilities management costs, and costs associated with software, network, and system and user support). 

For these purposes, the NCI Steering Committee has refined the definitions of partner and affiliate as follows:

• A partner contributes at least an indicative $1M per annum for the life of the NCI program (i.e., until June 30, 2011) for which they receive a share, i.e., a fractional resource allocationof NCI facilities,
• An affiliate is a co-investor which does not make this level of investment and, instead, receives a fixed resource allocation for the year in which they invest. 

The pricing basis of fixed resources is set by calculating the lifetime total cost of the system divided by the total resources that can be delivered.  Historically, this figure has been approximately $0.50 per processor hour, with the NCI SC determining that resources for the current NF systems will be charged at this rate for publicly-funded research institutions. 

The determination of the partner share is priced in a similar manner, but over time, through anticipated increments in system capacity, the absolute resources available to partners (given a fixed fractional share) will rise.

Other Access

Resources can also be purchased for specific projects by public sector as well as commercial organisations and individuals.  Commercial usage will incur costs that take into account market factors and Australian Government competitive neutrality guidelines.

In all cases, additional software or other requirements will be expected to be provided by the commercial organisation, unless a case can be made that a wider community is being served.