Australasian Leadership Computing Grants

The ALCG 2021 call for applications is currently open

The 2021 round of Australasian Leadership Computing Grants will be available to access NCI's high-performance computing system, Gadi.

The call for applications is designed to identify meritorious research projects with demonstrated ability to use HPC systems effectively at scale, and to provide these projects with larger allocations for extreme scale computational science.

All fields of research are eligible to apply. NCI may prioritise bushfire and COVID-19 related research for the 2021 round.

Eligible Australian researchers are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to participate in the ALCG scheme.

ALCG allocations in the initial call will be 20-50 MSU per project, valid for a 12-month period from 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022.

Applicants were invited to attend an online information session on Wednesday 3 March 12pm AEDT. If you have further questions please contact help@nci.org.au

Application Procedure - please read the Information for Applicants document in full.

Application for allocations is a two-stage process.

1. Expression of Interest (deadline 5pm AEDT, 9th March 2021)
NCI invites applicants to submit an Expression of Interest through the NCI registration system https://my.nci.org.au.

Expressions of Interest are shortlisted by the Allocation Committee. The Lead CIs of unsuccessful EOIs will be notified of this outcome as soon as possible following assessment and successful applications will be invited to submit a full application.

2. Full Application (deadline 5pm AEST, 12th April 2021)
The applicant (Lead CI) provides additional track record information in the NCI registration system, and submits an 9-page written application (PDF document) to help@nci.org.au

Note that a Full Application will be accepted only for EOIs which have been favourably assessed and shortlisted by the Allocation Committee.

10 March: Note that deadlines were extended slightly from those originally advertised.

Important dates for the Australasian Leadership Computing Grants
Date	Milestone
16 February 2021	Call for Expressions of Interest
3 March 2021	Online information session
9 March 2021	Expressions of Interest deadline (5pm AEDT)
22 March 2021	Shortlisted EOIs invited to submit a full application
12 April 2021	Deadline for invited applications (5pm AEST)
22 April 2021	Allocation Committee meeting
27 April 2021	Allocations announced

ALCG 2021 Information for Applicants

Click here to download the ALCG 2021 Information for Applicants document.

Downloads

ALCG 2021 Information for Applicants

FAQ's

1. What are the eligibility requirements?

Applicants are expected to have demonstrated experience using HPC at an Australian or international facility and a record of research outputs in one or more areas of computational science.

All fields of research are eligible to apply. The 2021 priority areas are bushfires and COVID19.

Lead Chief Investigators (Lead CI) of projects must hold at least a 0.2 FTE research position at an Australian higher-education institution or research institute for the financial year 2021/22, and be based in Australia.

Chief Investigators (CI) must hold at least a 0.2 FTE research position at an Australian higher- education institution, research institute or publicly-funded research agency, and be based in Australia.

Lead Chief Investigators and Chief Investigators on an application must provide evidence of independent research funding, for example, grants from the ARC or NHMRC. Any grants referenced by a Lead CI or CI must name that applicant as a primary recipient. Applications citing grants on which the applicants are not primary (named) grant recipients will be disqualified for non-compliance.

A person holding a Postdoctoral appointment or undertaking a higher degree by research is not eligible to be a Lead Chief Investigator on an ALCG EOI or application.

An individual may be named as a Chief Investigator or Lead Chief investigator on only one ALCG EOI or application.

An ALCG application must demonstrate scalability on one or more HPC systems, at an Australian or international HPC facility. Proposals based on serial, single-cpu workflows will be not be accepted.

2. Is industry participation allowed?
Industry engagement is allowed, but the Lead CI on an application must meet the above eligibility criteria.

3. Can one application support multiple projects (ie a consortium bid)?
No. The ALCG is intended to identify meritorious research projects with demonstrated ability to use HPC systems effectively at scale, and to provide these projects with larger allocations for extreme scale computational science.

4. Can new users apply?
Yes, as long as eligibility requirements are met and the application demonstrates a track record of HPC utilisation at large scales.

5. Does it matter which hardware we apply for?
No, proposals utilising Gadi CPU and/or GPU capabilities (or both) will be accepted.

6. Can I include figures in my EOI?
No, EOI is submitted directly into the MyNCI portal. Tables may be added, but the system does not support figures.