How to apply for a compute project
This is an old page, that may include outdated information. Please see the new version of this page for current information.
Three steps are required in order to successfully file an application for compute time for research purposes:
- Provide a description of the project
- A concise project description should be formulated for small research projects (1-2 pages).
- For larger compute projects a detailed project description similar to the one described in guidelines for proposals for NHR computing time is required. Should your project be related to a peer-reviewed and approved research project (DFG, BMBF, EU or alike), please add to your project description the corresponding note of approval in order to reduce the effort for the scientific assessment. We ask you to provide your project description in English. As an exception, we are ready to accept project descriptions in German under the condition that you provide an English version in case this is requested by the reviewers.
- Next, fill out the JARDS online form providing your resource requirements necessary for the technical assessment. In many cases it is just the sheer compute capacity that is the limiting factor. The form asks for information not only about the resource requirements in CPU-hours, but also about the parallel processing, the memory, storage and software requirements, and others of that kind. Furthermore, you are prompted to classify your field of research according to the DFG’s subject classification system of the years 2016-2019. For continuity reasons we still adhere to the older list of scientific subjects. We depend on your information in order to provide an optimal environment concerning hard- and software for your immediate work. We also need to have a good knowledge of your needs in order to be able to shape the future of the RWTH High Performance Computing.
- JARDS generates a PDF file which will be sent to you by email once you finalize the online submission. If the PI uses a trusted email address (fz-juelich or rwth-aachen domain) the submission can be finalized by the PI online (without paper). Otherwise the PDF file has to be signed by the principal investigator and then sent to us:
- Upload directly to JARDS OR
- send by eMail to hpc-projects@itc.rwth-aachen.de, using this subject: "Application for Compute Time No. NNNN"
More than one scientist can participate in these projects, in which case the resources granted will be available for collective use by the project members. In fact, in order to reduce the complexity while processing the proposals, we would kindly ask you to define meaningful project sizes and if possible combine your requests instead of having each scientific employee submit his or her own application. Applications for compute time for courses and thesis works follow a similar path, but instead of project description you only need to provide the title of the course/seminar/practica, respectively the title of the thesis work and information about the graduate. Here you can find an example of a PDF file generated by JARDS.
Please note: Computing and data resources, as well as access to the RWTH HPC infrastructure, are provided to the best of our ability. However, approved resources are not guaranteed. We reserve the right to limit the availability of resources if external conditions such as force majeure, obligations to save electricity, or other circumstances make this necessary. Resources lost in such cases will not be refunded.
