All authorized users that have access to the cluster are allocated a basic quota of core-hours to run computations on the HPC system. However, since the amount of resources in the cluster is limited, users that need more quota must apply for a compute project. This project application is then reviewed by us before approval.

These are pre-authorized users that can compute on the HPC system without applying for a compute project:

• Members of RWTH Aachen University
• Members of the UKA for research and teaching  (FB10)
• Persons with partner status of RWTH Aachen University
• Members of FZ Jülich

These are users that can use the HPC system AFTER being authorized through a JARDS compute project application:

• Members of German public or government-approved teaching and research institutions (RWTH small)
• Members of German public or government-approved universities (NHR normal, NHR large or PREP)

These are users that can get authorization to join existing computing projects via invitation from a PI/PC:

• Members of approved computing projects

To receive more resources beyond the basic quota, users can also apply for a compute project. The following persons are allowed to apply for a project (compute resources):

These are Principal Investigator users (PI) that can apply for the project categories RWTH small, RWTH thesis and RWTH lecture (Tier-3 resources):

• Leading researcher (usually with doctorate) of RWTH Institutes
• Leading researcher (usually with doctorate) of RWTH An-Institutes
• Leading researcher (usually with doctorate) of universities in North Rhine-Westphalia (including universities of applied sciences (HAW)) who would like to apply for a project in the field of engineering sciences.
• Employees of RWTH Aachen in the context of student thesis supervision (bachelor/master) (RWTH Thesis only)
• Guest lecturer of RWTH Aachen (RWTH Lecture only)
• Leading (usually with doctorate) researcher of the UKA for teaching and research (FB10)
• Leading (usually with doctorate) researcher of FZ Jülich (a one-time registration in the RWTH Identity Management system is a prerequisite)

Apply as PI of any German public or government-approved university (including RWTH Aachen University) for the project categories NHR normal, NHR large or PREP, e.g. (Tier-2 resources):

• Leading researcher (usually with doctorate) of universities (including universities for applied science (HAW))

These are Principal Investigator users (PI) that can apply for the project category WestAI:

• Leading researcher (usually with doctorate) of universities (including universities for applied science (HAW)) or research institutions

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 for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) before they are allowed to use the RWTH High Performance Computing service. In compute time projects the PI is responsible.

Apart from using local compute resources, scientists at the RWTH can apply for resources on

• national HPC facilities organized in the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing or
• European facilities in the context of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE).

These applications are carefully reviewed, taking technical and scientific aspects into account. The used software packages must be very well suited to the respective hardware architecture of the target machinery. Typically, the appropriate scalability of parallel applications has to be proved. In many cases the scientific soundness of such a proposal can be underpinned by approved scientific research grants.

See Also

• Overview of available Computing Projects
• Roles in Computing Projects