System Access
Scientists at German universities can apply for free access to our supercomputers for research purposes as part of the NHR network. In addition, there are simplified access routes for users from Paderborn University and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as options for international users. The following information will help you to find the right way to apply for access. If in doubt, our support team will also be happy to help you.
How to apply for HPC resources
Scientists can apply for HPC resources required for their research activities. The requested resources are managed as a project with a default duration of one year. If necessary, a project can be renewed after one year by following the process of submitting a new application.
Applications have to be submitted through the online project application systems
- Test, Small, and NHR-Normal projects: Online project application system (PC2-JARDS)
- NHR-Starter and Large projects: Online project application system (NHR-JARDS)
and must comply to the project classification, resource allowance and eligibility criteria listed in the following table. If you need a commitment of compute resources for a project proposal, please have a look at the FAQ section.
Recent Changes:
- NHR-Normal projects can now get up to 30 Mio. CPU-core-hours per year (previously up to 20 Mio. CPU-core-hours per year)
- The simplifications for already scientifically reviewed research projects have been extended to all German federal ministries and the VW Stiftung.
- NHR-Large proposals have to be submitted via the NHR-JARDS proposal system, see also our guide.
| NHR | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Class | starter | large | normal | small | fpga-development | teaching | test |
| Purpose | Intended for applicants that are new to high performance computing | Projects with large resource requirements | Medium size resource requirements (e.g. large scale GPU accelerated application) | Projects with small resource requirements (e.g. FPGA or GPU accelerated application, PhD thesis) | Project with a special emphasis on FPGA acceleration of HPC codes (e.g. in scope of AMD/Xilinx HACC program)* | Teaching (courses, thesis, project groups)** | Porting applications, scalability analysis |
| Systems | |||||||
| Noctua 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Noctua 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Resources | |||||||
CPU-Core-hours | depending on needs | > 30 Mio. | > 4 Mio. and <= 30 Mio. | <= 4 Mio. | <= 4 Mio. | <= 100,000 | depending on purpose, by default 100,000 |
GPU- or FPGA-hours | depending on needs | > 100,000 GPU-h or FPGA-h | <= 100,000 GPU-h or FPGA-h | <= 10,000 GPU-h or FPGA-h | <= 10,000 FPGA-h | - | depending on purpose, by default 1,000 GPU-h |
| Prerequisites | |||||||
| Location of applicant (Principal Investigator, PI) | Germany | Germany | Germany | UPB, NRW (only locations without local/Tier-3 resources) | worldwide | UPB, NRW (only locations without local/Tier-3 resources) | Germany |
| Project duration | one year | one year or multi-year | one year or multi-year | one year | one year | 3 - 6 months | one month |
| Extensions Possible? | ✕, usually followed up by a NHR-normal/large project | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Review Process | |||||||
| Technical Review | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scientific Review | internal review | external review | external review | internal review | internal review | ✕ | ✕ |
| Submission Process | |||||||
| Call for Proposals | continuous submission | 4x per year | continuous submission | continuous submission | continuous submission | continuous submission | continuous submission |
| Typical duration till project start | about one week after proposal submission |
|
| about one week after proposal submission | about one week after proposal submission | about one week after proposal submission | about one week after proposal submission |
| Proposal Guide | Guide for apply for NHR-starter | Guide to apply for NHR-large | Guide to apply for a small project | Guide to apply for an fpga-development project | Guide to apply for a teaching project | Guide to apply for a test project | |
(*) Scientists of research and teaching institutions worldwide can be granted access to FPGA systems in the context of a research collaboration with PC2.
(**) Thesis with focus on FPGA-acceleration of HPC codes can be granted access to Noctua2.
worldwide = Research and teaching institutions worldwide
Germany = universites in Germany (including universities of applied science)
NRW = Research institutions located in North Rhine-Westphalia (State NRW)
UPB = Paderborn University
Templates
| Project Type | Purpose | Files |
|---|---|---|
| normal or large, single-year or multi-year | Detailed description for compute time application if the project has been not been scientifically reviewed yet | |
| normal, single-/multi-year | Detailed description for compute time application if the project has already been scientifically reviewed | |
| normal or large, single-/multi-year | Detailed description for extension of project | |
| normal or large, multi-year | Yearly short progress report | |
| normal or large, single-/multi-year | Final report after project end (if not applied for an extension) | |
| small project | Project report after project end (if not applied for an extension) |