Project proposals are invited via a number of schemes which are targeted at different research communities, fields, and levels of computational experience.

On this page:

For assistance in completing your merit allocation application, contact the Pawsey Helpdesk.

General criteria

The Lead Chief Investigator (Lead CI) for any Supercomputer project must be a staff member at an Australian research institution (merit projects) or business (commercial projects). The Lead CI can add others to their project (students, international researchers), but ultimately the Lead CI is accountable for any activity under their project.

The Lead CI and their team members need to agree with Pawsey's Conditions of Use. Of particular note are:

Account sharing is strictly prohibited and will result in disabled accounts.
Publications resulting from the use of Pawsey infrastructure must be acknowledged with the following text:
"This work was supported by resources provided by The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia."
In any financial year that you use Pawsey resources, you must submit an annual report as requested.

This documentation page explains how to get access for commencing new projects at Pawsey.
If you wish to join an existing project, you do not need to apply for access.
Instead, contact the Lead CI in the first instance and ask them to invite you to the project.

Use of Pawsey Project Infrastructure is conditional on complying with relevant laws and export controls, including:

Australian Defence Trade Controls Act https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00318
United National Security Council (UNSC) sanctions regimes and the Australian autonomous sanctions regimes http://www.dfat.gov.au/sanctions/
U.S. Export Controls https://www.trade.gov/us-export-controls

Allocation schemes

At the time of writing, compute-time allocations on Pawsey Supercomputers can be obtained through the following schemes:

The National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS) – The scheme operates annual allocation calls, which are open to the whole Australian research community and which provide substantial amounts of compute time for meritorious, computational-research projects.
The Pawsey Partner Merit Allocation Scheme (Pawsey Partner) – Calls are open to researchers in Pawsey Partner institutions and provide significant amounts of compute time for meritorious, computational research projects. The Partner institutions are CSIRO, Curtin University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia. This scheme operates annual calls, with an out-of-session application process for newly eligible project leaders.
The Preparatory Access Scheme - Call is open all year round. The scheme is designed and intended for researchers who need to port and benchmark their codes and workflows before applying to one of the merit allocation schemes and/or generate scalability data to be included in the merit allocation schemes proposals.
The Fast Track Access Scheme - This scheme is designed and intended for projects representing high impact and requiring flexible access to supercomputing resources. Submissions to the Fast Track Access Scheme must be recognised as high impactful and endorsed by organisations participating in the scheme. The Fast Track Access Scheme also supports time-critical access including response to natural hazards, public health and national security.

Figure 1. Flow chart explaining supercomputing access schemes

The merit allocation schemes are summarized in table 1:

Table 1. Attributes of the merit allocation schemes

Scheme	Key eligibility criteria	Call frequency	Award size and duration
NCMAS	Projects must be research-focused Chief Investigator must be employed at an Australian university or research institution	Annual call in September/October each year	Large, 12-month allocations, budgeted quarterly Available allocation hours will be published close to opening the call for applications
Pawsey Partner Merit Allocation Scheme	Projects must be research-focused Chief Investigator must be employed at a Pawsey Partner institution	Annual call in September/October each year Responsive-mode in exceptional cases, available most of the year	Large, 12-month allocations, budgeted quarterly Available allocation hours will be published close to opening the call for applications

Distribution of schemes across the resources

Access to Setonix is primarily through competitive merit, via the NCMAS or Pawsey Partner schemes.

Related pages

Conditions of Use

Requesting Access to Pawsey Supercomputers

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