Allocation Overview and Eligibility

• 1. Allocation Overview
• 2. Eligibility
• 3. Award Types
  • 3.1 DOE Production Awards
  • 3.2 Startup Awards
• 4. ERCAP Authorizations
  • 4.1 New Principal Investigators
  • 4.2 PI Proxies

1. Allocation Overview

Allocations of NERSC computer time and archival storage are awarded by DOE and managed by NERSC. There is no monetary charge to the project that receives the award, nor does NERSC sell computational resources. The awarded research groups are given project accounts, known as repositories, with a given amount of computing hours and an archival storage allocation. Resource usage (computer time or archival storage) is charged against a repository, like a withdrawal from a bank account. Once the account is exhausted, users can no longer charge against that account.

Requests to use NERSC resources are submitted annually (see Allocation Deadlines) via a web form. The process is known as ERCAP (Energy Research Computing Allocations Process). The ERCAP form is accessed through the NERSC Information Management (NIM) web interface. While the majority of awards are made annually, the ERCAP process is open year-round, but the amount of available resources are usually quite limited after the annual allocation awards have been announced. Startup projects, which are awarded separately, are encouraged to apply at any time.

Beginning in Allocation Year 2009, the basic allocation unit of computer time, is one Cray XT4 hour. The previous unit was based on one IBM SP POWER 3 hour. See MPP Charging.

2. Eligibility

Research projects may apply for an allocation of NERSC resources if one of the following is true.

• The research project is funded by the DOE Office of Science.
• The research project is relevant to the mission of the DOE Office of Science.

Most of the allocation awards are reserved to support DOE Office of Science funded projects, but up to seven percent of NERSC resources may be awarded to projects that aren't directly supported by the Office of Science. You will need to know which DOE Office and Program most closely corresponds to the work you are doing: see DOE Offices, Programs and Allocations Managers.

3. Award Types

3.1 DOE Production Awards

These awards are for production-ready projects that receive direct grant support from the DOE Office of Science or whose research reflects the mission of DOE's Office of Science. SciDAC projects are included in this category; there are no longer separate SciDAC awards.

DOE Production awards are made by the Office of Science Allocation Managers.

3.2 Startup Awards

These are awards for PIs who wish to investigate using NERSC resources for new projects, or who wish to port or develop new codes. The maximum Startup award for 2009 is 15,000 Cray XT4-equivalent hours and 10,000 Storage Resource Units. A request for a Startup repository can be made at any time during the year, and decisions for Startup requests are made by NERSC within one to three weeks after applying. Startup requests require only brief answers to the Code Description and Data questions on the ERCAP request form.

Startup awards are valid for up to 18 months (although they need to be renewed for a new allocation year), after which time the PI must obtain a "DOE production" award. This is accomplished by approval of the appropriate DOE allocation manager during the allocation or by renewing the startup project as a production project for the next allocation year. Production projects are expected to have codes that can effectively use hundreds to thousands of processors.

4. ERCAP Authorizations

4.1 New Principal Investigators

In general, Principal Investigators on projects allocated at NERSC are also PIs on a DOE Office of Science research grant. Some Principal Investigators on projects allocated at NERSC are PIs on projects awarded by other funding agencies (e.g. NSF, NOAA, NASA, DoD). in addition, senior researchers whose research is relevant to the Office of Science may also become new Principal Investigators. See Eligibility.

An existing NERSC user may apply for a new project allocation as a new PI by logging into NIM, selecting My ERCAP Requests from the My Stuff pulldown in the NIM main menu, and following the instructions there.

A Principal Investigator who is new to NERSC and does not yet have a NERSC login should follow the instructions in Applying for Your First NERSC Allocation.

4.2 PI Proxies

A Principal Invest1gator can designate one or more "PI Proxies" who help to to fill out the request form. You can check whether one of your existing projects has a PI Proxy associated with it by entering your repo name in the box under Repository in NIM's main menu and clicking Go.

• To Designate a PI Proxy for a New Project

  To designate a Proxy before making a request for a brand new project: fill out the ERCAP Access Request Form. This will allow the Proxy to make the request on behalf of the PI.

• To Add a new Proxy to an Existing Request

  Once a request has been started (and the Project Overview tab saved), a PI or Proxy can add a new Proxy for that request by clicking the Add a preparer (PI Proxy) link on question 2 on the Project Information page.

• To Delete a Proxy

  Before renewing a request, the PI and Proxies can delete a Proxy from a current project by following the instructions at Changing a User's Project Role. This will immediately delete the proxy from the project.

  Once a request is renewed for the next allocation year all Proxies are "renewed" as well. You can delete a Proxy from the user list of the renewed request by clicking the Validate User List tab. The proxy will remain active for the remainder of the current allocation year.