• Terms of Use
• Datenschutzerklärung (in German, Privacy Policy)
  • Old version 1.1 from 27. June 2019
  • Old version 1.0 from 17. January 2019
• This Acknowledgement Statement​​​​​​​ has to be included in all publications that used PC² systems, resources or support services

The conditions for accessing our HPC systems are mandated by the grant agreement rules of the funding agency as well as federal law, state law, and university regulations. The eligibility of the applicant is checked as part of the computing time proposal reviewing process.

The most important rules are summarized below.

1. Our HPC systems shall be primarily used for quality controlled i.e. peer-reviewed research. Use for teaching purposes is also permissible but the amount of resources that can be requested is substantially lower.
2. Our computing infrastructure is publicly funded and can therefore only be used for research that makes the results available to the general public.
   1. Foundational research funded by DFG or ERC is generally eligible to be executed on our HPC systems.
   2. Collaborative research between academic and industrial partners, e.g. funded by BMBF, BMWi, European Commissions typically also qualifies for being executed on our HPC systems, if the results are public.
   3. Contract research where results are confidential is typically not eligible to be executed on our systems.
3. The institution association of the principal investigator of a computing time proposal determines which computer systems can be used:
   1. Members of Paderborn University can use our Tier 3 HPC systems (currently Noctua 1) for small research projects and education as well as a part of our Tier 2 system (currently Noctua 2) for large research projects free of charge.
   2. Members from universities in NRW that do not operate HPC systems can use our Tier 3 HPC systems (currently Noctua 1) for small research projects and education free of charge.
   3. Members from universities in NRW can use our Tier 3 HPC systems (currently Noctua 1) also for large research projects and education free of charge.
   4. Scientists at any universities in Germany can apply for access for our Tier 2 HPC systems (currently Noctua 2). The use is free of charge and these applications are evaluated using the review process explained above.
   5. Scientists of research and teaching institutions worldwide can be granted access to selected HPC systems in the context of a research collaboration with PC2, e.g., for evaluating novel hard and software technologies. Interested parties are advised to send an informal inquiry to pc2-support@uni-paderborn.de before submitting a formal application to discuss the possibilities.
4. Citizens of countries that are subject to the export control policy of the German Federal Government may need additional authorization from the German Federal Office Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) before they are allowed to use our HPC systems.