NSCC Call for Research Project

1. Overview
2. Eligibility & Requirement
3. Account Creation
4. Project Application
5. Resource Approval Criteria
6. Additional Resources
7. Project Expiration
8. Acknowledgement

Cycle	Application Period	Notification of Application Results*	Resource Allocation Period	Project Status
Jul’20	2 Mar – 3 Apr 2020 (CLOSED)	Jun 2020	1 Jul 2020 to 30 Jun 2021	Ended
Jan’21	1 Sep – 30 Sep 2020 2 Oct 2020 (CLOSED)	Dec 2020	1 Jan 2021 to 31 Dec 2021	Ongoing
Jul’21	1 Mar – 31 Mar 2021 (CLOSED)	Jun 2021	1 Jul 2021 to 30 Jun 2022	Ongoing
Jan’22	1 Sep – 30 Sep 2021	Dec 2021	1 Jan 2022 to 31 Dec 2022

Table 1: Application and resource allocation period for project cycles.

1. Overview

Important Note:

As previously announced, NSCC is building a new supercomputer which is expected to be commissioned and open to all users in Q2-2022. Please be prepared that you may be required to transition from ASPIRE 1 into the new ASPIRE 2A supercomputer in Q2-2022. Details of the transition will be provided at a later date.

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In July 2017, the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore officially started allocating resources on a per-project basis for users who require resources beyond the personal quota of 50 GB storage and 100,000 CPU core hours for NSCC ASPIRE 1.

Also available for use is the [email protected] Platform. This platform is deployed in support of AI Singapore (AISG), a national programme set up to drive AI adoption, research and innovation in Singapore. The system consisting of six DGX-1 nodes are meant for projects that focus on AI research with the particular novelty on scale and/or throughput breakthrough. NSCC is now accepting project proposals for allocating resources to the AI System.  

Learn more about the ASPIRE 1 and AI System here.

2. Eligibility & Requirement

• Project calls are only eligible for applicants from stakeholder organisations.
• The applicant should be the Principal Investigator (PI) or the supervisor of the project. If required, the PI may authorise a team member to submit the application on their behalf.
• The applicant will be contact person for project approval, updates, and management of the project users and resources.
• Member(s) of accepted projects may be selected for an oral presentation, be required to do a poster presentation or submit a paper of their project at NSCC’s annual SupercomputingAsia (SCA) conference or its technical arm, Supercomputing Frontiers Asia (SCFA), in Singapore.

3. Account Creation

• Users from stakeholder organisations (A*STAR, NTU, NUS, SUTD, TCOMS, NEA¹): apply for an account now at https://user.nscc.sg.
• Users from the other organisations: please write to [email protected] for more information.
• Please refer to Getting Started with NSCC Supercomputing on ASPIRE 1 for more information.

¹For NEA users, please contact [email protected] for account creation.

4. Project Application

• Submit your application on the Projects Portal when the application period opens (refer to Table 1 for more details).
• All resources, if approved, will be for a 1-year period.
• You will receive a confirmation email once your application has been submitted successfully.
• All applications that are not submitted will be deleted at the end of the application period. (Renewal applications will be reverted to their previous status).
• Please refer to the Projects Portal User Guide for more information.
• For ASPIRE 1: Resources requested should be at least 50,000 CPU core hours².
• For AI System: Projects must focus on AI research.

²Please fully utilise the resources in your personal account (100,000 core hours and 50 GB storage) if you have not done so.

For New Applications:

1. Click on “Create” to generate a new application form via the Projects Portal.
2. Complete and submit the application form.

For Renewal³ Applications:

1. Update the project deliverables achieved for the previous cycle under the “Deliverables” button via the Projects Portal.
2. Click on “Renew” for the project that you wish to renew.
3. Complete and submit the application form. Please remember to update the Start & End date of resource requirement for the new cycle.

³Note: Projects approved under the Jan-cycle should submit their renewal in the Jan-cycle call, and projects approved under the Jul-cycle should submit their renewal in the Jul-cycle call.

Example 1: Project awarded resources during the Jul’20 Cycle Call for Research Project should submit their renewal application during the Jul’21 Cycle Call for Research Project.

Example 2: Project awarded resources during the Jan’21 Cycle Call for Research Project should submit their renewal application during the Jan’22 Cycle Call for Research Project.

5. Resource Approval Criteria

The project allocations are reviewed by the Policy & Resource Allocation Committee (PRAC) and Technical Resource Allocation Committee (TRAC) with representatives from the NSCC stakeholders and AI Singapore (for the AI System), based on scientific merits and technical feasibility.

For all project applications, the criteria for resource approval includes:

• Scientific merits of the project
• Quality and completeness of the application
• Expected deliverables (e.g. number of patents, publications and postgraduate students etc.)
• Track record of applicant (based on resources utilisation and deliverables achieved for previously approved projects, if any.)

For project renewals, applications will be reviewed for the following:

• Project’s resource usage (Please note that if the previously granted resources have less than 70% utilisation, the new resource requests may be subjected to reduction)
• Deliverables achieved

6. Additional Resources

For requests of additional resources after project approval, please email [email protected] with the following details:

1. Project ID
2. New resource request requested
3. Reasons for the new request (e.g. how was the resources used, applications used etc.)
4. Calculations of the requested resource
5. Utilisation plan over the remaining months till the end of the project cycle
6. Deliverables achieved as of now

Please note that the lead time will be around 2 to 4 weeks.

7. Project Expiration

Projects that are not renewed will expire by the end of the 1-year project cycle. Renewal application should be submitted for project extending beyond a year.

• Project quota will be set to zero (0) hours and no jobs will be dispatched.
• All project data will remain in the system for 30 days.
• After 30 days, all project data will be archived.
• Charges will be incurred for retrieval of archived data at $0.022/GB.
• All archived data will be retained for 5 months from the date of archival.

Please plan your resource utilisation wisely and use your allocated resources as early as possible to avoid encountering resource bottlenecks towards the end of the project cycle.

8. Acknowledgement

• The applicant will be notified of the project approval status before the start of the resource allocation period.
• Projects that have been granted resources are obliged to acknowledge NSCC in any published work. A sample of the text can be found in the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP); which details can be found below.

Citation: All academic journal or conference papers shall cite NSCC with the following:

“The computational work for this article was (fully/partially) performed on resources of the National Supercomputing Centre, Singapore (https://www.nscc.sg).”

Updated 26 August 2021