Other National and International Resources

Owned by Cristian Di Pietrantonio
Last updated: Aug 16, 2023 by Maciej Cytowski

Other computational resources may be available to researchers in addition to Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre (Pawsey) resources. This page provides a brief overview of what opportunities are available at the national and international levels. Some of these avenues are open to all researchers, while others may be restricted to those in a particular field.

National

Compute services

The main national scheme for Australian researchers is the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS). This scheme offers time at a number of different facilities including Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. The NCMAS website discusses eligibility, assessment criteria, closing dates, and so on. It also provides access to the NCMAS application portal.

The institutions which contribute to NCMAS offer different types of resources. Follow the links to the individual institutions to see what resources are currently available under NCMAS, and other local schemes.

  • The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) is a national research facility based in Canberra and offers NCMAS allocations, partner shares, and an NCI flagship allocation scheme. See the NCI website for further details.
  • MASSIVE (Multi-modal Australian Sciences Imaging and Visualisation Environment) specialises in imaging and visualisation, together with microscopy and other material characterisation methods. See the MASSIVE website for further details.

Cloud services

Research cloud services may be suitable for certain tasks including long-running serial and multi-core jobs or setting up web services for research data products access.   

  • Pawsey operates a cloud service named Nimbus. This has a lighter-weight application process than Pawsey supercomputers.
  • Australian Research Data Commons operates a cloud service named NeCTAR.

International

Computational resources can also be obtained from a variety of overseas sources, usually requiring some level of relevant international collaboration. We suggest interested Pawsey users contact the Pawsey Helpdesk Service in the first instance for advice on how to approach applications.

Notable schemes include:

  • INCITE. The United States Department of Energy INCITE programme (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) targets leadership class machines and high-risk, high-reward projects at the limits of what is possible. Anyone can apply, but applications need to be of the highest quality to gain approval. Preparatory access is available under the Director's Discretionary Programme to allow testing and benchmarking with the aim of submitting a full application. For further details see the DoE's Leadership Computing website.
  • EuroHPC JU. The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is funded by the European Union. A range of resources is available at various locations for which you will probably need to find a collaborator at a European academic institution. For further details see the EuroHPC website. Again, preparatory access is available to assess the suitability of given platforms/codes for a full application.
  • ACCESS. The Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is a single virtual system that scientists can use to interactively share computing resources, data and expertise. It is available for researchers from around the world and includes access to supercomputers, collections of data and new tools. For further details see the ACCESS website. 

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