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Getting Accounts or Otherwise Applying for Resource on the NCI National Facility

Contents

Preliminary Information

Who may have an account The NCI National Facility (NF) is available for use by researchers and postgraduate students (through their supervisors) at Australian universities and the CSIRO. All access is subject to conditions of use and other policies, including a requirement to acknowledge NCI in publications.
Use of the NF systems for commercial purposes or by commercial organisations is possible by negotiation (email for details).
When to Apply Generally proposals may be submitted at any time, however proposals to the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme (MAS) are prefered at the twice yearly call for proposals.
How to Apply Read on to see which scheme you should apply under and the relevant policies, then load up the application form by clicking on the link in the left hand column if provided, or selecting the link for the form from within the explanatory text. Forms are to be filled in and submitted online.
Cost & ARC Resource Valuation The NF operates on a resource share model whereby the resources of the NF systems have been allocated to NCI (for the MAS) and other Partners in accordance with the contributions they have provided to the NF. As a result of this model, researchers granted resources under the MAS or by the Partners are not charged by NCI for their use of the systems at the NF.

The NCI Steering Committee has determined that for the purposes of indicating the in-kind value of grants to bodies such as the ARC, a figure of $0.40 per processor hour on compute systems should be used. Projects with commercial support may be expected to make a financial contribution.
Notes for Project Renewal Applications When you try to access a form for project renewal you will be required to authenticate yourself first. The reason for this is that if there is data available from a previous application for the project, the application form loaded will contain pre-filled in values for some parts of the form. It is very important that you:
  1. Read and Correct the pre-filled items. Out of date information will detract from your application.
  2. Correct the Role of each researcher on the project.
  3. Save the form then RELOAD it after correcting researcher Roles.
RFCD Codes Research Fields, Courses and Disciplines Codes used to classify the research areas of projects until recently.
ANZSRC FOR codes The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) Fields of Research Codes will need to be specified in all future project applications.
ANZSRC SEO codes The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) Socio-Economic Objective Codes will need to be specified in all future project applications.

Merit Allocation and Partner Computational Projects

Apply using the online FORMS.

Start-up accounts FORM Small start-up grants are available to help researchers evaluate the suitability of the National Facility to their research and to assist in framing applications for substantial grants. Postgraduate students can be connected users on projects with their supervisors as the principal investigator.
NCI Merit Allocation Scheme (MAS)
for Computational Projects		 Before submitting a proposal for time under the MAS you are strongly urged to read the first two of the documents listed below: Note:
The Federal Government has given approval for CSIRO researchers to obtain resource grants under the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme. CSIRO researchers may therefore apply to the scheme for such grants.

MAS project applications are CLOSED for the 2009 round. The application deadline was 9 Nov 2008. Applications submitted now will be considered as midterm applications. Such applications will be considered by the Merit Committee if there were exceptional circumstances preventing application at the usual time.

NEW MAS project NEW Merit Scheme Computational project FORM.
MAS project renewal Existing Merit Scheme Computational project - continuation FORM.

Partner Time Allocation for Computational Projects Partners have a formal share available to them to allocate at their own discretion separate to the NCI Merit Allocation Scheme. If your organisation is a member of one of the Partners, you are eligible to apply for a Partner grant. These grants are generally smaller than MAS grants.
NEW Partner project NEW Partner project FORM.

Partner project renewal Existing Partner project - continuation FORM.

Other Forms

Third Party Software Request If there is third-party software not currently installed on the NCI National Facility that is essential to your project or which you believe would be useful, please complete the form.
Adding Additional User Use this form if you want to connect to an existing project either a new person who does not yet have a login on any of the NCI National Facility facilities, or someone with an existing username.
Data expansion for MAS Compute projects Existing Merit Allocation Scheme Compute projects may use this form to apply for an increase to their mass data storage capacity on the ANU Supercomputer Facitlity mass data storage system.
Data expansion for ANU Compute projects Existing ANU Partner Share Compute projects and ANU Data projects may use this form to apply for an increase to their mass data storage capacity.
ANU Data Startup ANU researchers may use this form to apply for a startup data project at the ANU.
NEW ANU Data projects ANU researchers may use this form to apply for a new data project at the ANU.
ANU Dataset Hosting ANU researchers may use this form to apply to have a shared dataset HOSTED at the ANU.
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