Allocation Schemes and Eligibility
Project proposals are invited via a number of schemes which are targeted at different research communities, fields, and levels of computational experience.
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, Edith Cowan 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 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 |
|
|
|
| Pawsey Partner Merit Allocation Scheme |
|
|
|
Distribution of schemes across the resources
- Setonix - Access to Setonix is primarily through competitive merit, via the NCMAS or Pawsey Partner schemes.
- Garrawarla - Access is only for MWA radio-astronomy projects.