Apply for access to high performance computing facilities - EPSRC

EPSRC-funded high-performance computing (HPC) services provide access to a range of specialised computational capabilities which cannot be provided at local university level.

This call provides researchers with an open and flexible route to computational support for high quality projects within EPSRC’s remit. It combines what was previously the ARCHER Resource Allocation Panel, the Tier-2 Open Access call and ARCHER2 Pioneers call. It is expected that the call will open every six months.

A wide variety of activities can be supported. We particularly encourage applications that:

  • involve early career researchers
  • provide an opportunity to onboard and train new users
  • significantly push the boundaries in computational research using HPC in your field

Computing services you can apply for access to are:

  • ARCHER2
  • most of the EPSRC-funded Tier-2 HPC services, including:
    • Isambard
    • Kelvin-2
    • JADE
    • Cirrus
    • NICE
    • CSD3
    • Baskerville
    • Sulis

This application process is purely for compute resource. No funding is available to successful applicants. There is no upper limit to the amount of compute resource you can apply for, but it must be justified and deemed appropriate to the objectives of your project.

Key dates

The following key dates apply to 2023 applications:

  • opening date for applications: 27 March 2023 at 10:00am UK time
  • technical assessment submission deadline: 12 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time
  • closing date for applications: 26 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time
  • panel meeting: week commencing 12 June 2023
  • expected project start dates: week commencing 3 July 2023

Who can apply

You must be based at a UK institution eligible for funding. This includes:

  • UK higher education institutions
  • research council institutes
  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-approved independent research organisations
  • eligible public sector research establishments
  • NHS bodies with research capacity

Read the guidance on institutional eligibility.

Individual eligibility

You can apply if you are a resident in the UK and meet at least one of the following:

  • are employed at the submitting research organisation at a level equivalent to lecturer or above
  • hold a fixed-term contract that extends beyond the duration of the proposed project, and the host research organisation is prepared to give you all the support normal for a permanent employee
  • hold an EPSRC, Royal Society or Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship
  • hold fellowships under other schemes (please contact EPSRC to check eligibility, which is considered on a case-by-case basis)

Research technical professionals, including research software engineers, are considered as academic employees and are eligible to be a principal or co-investigator under the same terms as traditional researchers.

Check if you’re eligible for funding.

If you are a student looking to access the HPC resources through this application route, you must seek an eligible principal investigator to apply on your behalf. The principal investigator:

  • must oversee the preparation of the proposal
  • will be responsible for how any time awarded is used

Limitations

You can only be an investigator (principal investigator or co-investigator) on a maximum of one proposal to each service.

Each proposal you are included for as an investigator (principal investigator or co-investigator) must be a unique and distinct project.

What we're looking for

EPSRC is looking to support a portfolio of projects across the HPC ecosystem, including but not limited to:

  • extended feasibility or proof of concept studies (at a larger scale than is possible in pump priming projects)
  • computational projects that may not warrant a full grant application
  • computational projects linking consecutive grant applications or aiding the preparation of a full grant or fellowship application
  • large amounts of compute for ambitious, computationally intensive simulations and calculations
  • collaborations with industrial and international partners
  • increase the development of computational science skills, such as allowing students to work jointly with principal investigators to achieve the aims of the proposed research, leading to improved software and coding skills, and career paths

Your proposal should align with at least one of the aims.

To be eligible for this call, the focus of the proposed research must fall (minimum 50%) within the remit of EPSRC.

Access to HPC streams

This call is split into three project streams, depending on the scale of resources applied for.

  1. Feasibility stream

Maximum request of £1,000 notional value (for example, 5,000 CU, 33,000 CPUh or 1,000 GPUh).

Projects can be up to six months in length.

  1. Main stream

Projects can be up to 12 months in length.

  1. Pioneer stream (ARCHER2 only)

Projects can be up to 2 years in length.

Minimum request of 165,000 CU per year.

Notional values used for the purposes of this call are:

  • £0.03 per CPU hour (Cirrus) or core hour (CSD3, Isambard, NI-HPC, SULIS)
  • £0.75 per GPU hour (Baskerville, BEDE, CIRRUS, CSD3, JADE, NI-HPC, SULIS)
  • £0.20 per CU (ARCHER2)

Responsible innovation

We recognise that we have a duty of care to promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor and to encourage our research community to do likewise.

You are expected to work within the EPSRC framework for responsible innovation.

EPSRC will not fund a project if it believes that there are ethical concerns that have been overlooked or not appropriately accounted for.

International collaboration

If you plan to include international collaborators in your proposal, you should visit Trusted Research for guidance on getting the most out of international collaboration whilst protecting intellectual property, sensitive research and personal information.

Other guidance

Guidance on writing your proposal.

What you can apply for

You can only apply for compute resource. The services available are:

  • ARCHER2, the Tier-1 national supercomputer
  • most of the EPSRC-funded Tier-2 HPC services, including:
    • Isambard
    • Kelvin-2
    • JADE
    • Cirrus
    • NICE
    • CSD3
    • Baskerville
    • Sulis

You should refer to the service specification document to help you decide which service to apply to. This document, along with the technical assessment and application forms, can be downloaded from the access to high performance computing application documents.

You cannot apply for EPSRC’s final Tier-2 service, the Materials and Molecular Modelling Hub (MMM Hub), through this process. Further details on accessing MMM Hub can be found in the service specification documentation.

Indicative levels of the computational resource available at each service, as well as service-specific restrictions on projects, can be found in the supporting documentation. Precise levels are subject to variations in the current usage of the services. You should check these requirements before preparing your application.

We recommend that you contact the service you are applying to as soon as possible to:

  • discuss whether the level of resource you intend to request is realistic and reasonable
  • refine your requirements while completing your technical assessment

EPSRC reserves the right to adjust the overall level of computational resource available and delay project start dates where circumstances require it.

Services will expect users to either use existing software on the system or to build their own software and will provide support where possible.

EPSRC approach to equipment funding.

What we will not support

There are some circumstances for which you should not apply through this route, which are as follows.

ARCHER2 time for High-End Computing (HEC) consortia projects

Projects in the remit of the HEC consortia cannot apply for ARCHER2 time through this route. Instead, you should apply through the relevant consortium.

Find out about the different scientific consortia.

UK Car-Parrinello Consortium (UKCP) and Materials Chemistry Consortium (MCC) remit projects

Projects in the remit of either the UK Car-Parrinello Consortium (UKCP) or the Materials Chemistry Consortium (MCC) are expected to be accommodated through their allocations on the Materials and Molecular Modelling Hub (MMM Hub), unless the service is not technically appropriate for the work.

Where the MMM Hub service is not technically appropriate for your proposed work, you may use this application process to apply for access to a suitable Tier-2 service. You should ask the relevant consortia to confirm that this is the case directly and in writing with EPSRC.

Restrictions

If you are part of an HEC consortium or have institutional access to a Tier-2 service, we strongly recommend that you contact the consortium or service before applying to ensure that this application route is the correct way for you to request compute time.

If you already have access to a service via a consortium or institution, you will need to explain in your application why this route is the most suitable one for you.

To ensure that funding is not awarded to an ineligible project, you will be required to inform EPSRC in your application whether you are a member of an HEC consortium. The chair of said consortium will be informed of details of your application if it is successful.

EPSRC retains the right to remove allocations (on any EPSRC-funded service) from successful applicants if it is established that these exclusions are being breached post award.

How to apply

Stage one: technical assessment

Prior to submitting an application proposal form, applicants to all streams must obtain a technical assessment completed by a representative of the service they wish to access. This step ensures that the resource request is appropriate and that all technical requirements have been considered prior to submission.

The technical assessment forms part of the assessment process. You can find the criteria the services will use to assess you technical submission in section two of the technical assessment form. Please note that there are two separate technical assessment forms for the feasibility stream and a combined one for main and pioneers streams.

We will not accept proposals that reuse previous technical assessments without the explicit consent of the service.

Submitting your technical assessment for approval

You should:

The subject header of your submission email should state that this is an ‘access to HPC submission’.

To enable services to process and approve your technical assessment, you must submit it to the relevant service by 12 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time. EPSRC and the relevant service cannot be held responsible for applications that miss the final deadline if the applicant has not met the deadline for submission of the technical assessment.

We recommended that you encrypt the email request for a technical assessment when it is sent to the appropriate service.

Feedback from service technical reviewers

You may receive comments made by technical reviewers on your technical assessment form. You should respond to these by amending the technical aspects of your form. The technical reviewer may recommend applying to a more appropriate service at this stage.

The service will normally return the technical assessment (either approved or with requests for amendments) promptly, dependent upon the service and the level of demand at the time of submission.

Once the technical reviewer at the service is satisfied that their comments have been addressed, they will approve your technical assessment, and return your form by email with sections one and two completed as required for the full application stage.

EPSRC and the services cannot be held responsible for applications that miss the final deadline if the applicant has not met the deadline specified above for submission of the technical assessment.

You should make every effort to submit your assessment in advance of the deadline to help service staff to manage the volume of requests.

Stage two: SmartSurvey application

You must submit your application using the short web form on the research councils SmartSurvey system. Each stream has different requirements for this stage so please ensure you follow the correct guidance for the stream you are applying to.

This form also contains questions to collect applicant diversity data. As this call has combined processes from several previous calls we wish to monitor participation (in line with the equality impact assessment) to ensure that this new process is fair and does not present any barriers to participation.

Start your application (SmartSurvey).

You must complete and submit your application, including any mandatory attachments, by 26 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to apply after this time.

Feasibility stream requirements

The only document required as a PDF attachment is a completed and approved technical assessment form for the service you are applying to access.

Main and pioneers stream requirements

You must include the following mandatory documents as separate PDF attachments:

  • completed and approved technical assessment form for the service you are applying to access
  • completed application form
  • one-page diagrammatic work plan

You may wish to include the following optional attachments:

  • letters of support (all letters should be combined and submitted as one PDF document)
  • a cover letter (this will be seen only by EPSRC and is not sent to peer review)

No other documentation is allowed. Only information contained in the application form, technical assessment, diagrammatic work plan and letters of support will be considered by the panel.

All documents should be completed in single-spaced Arial 11 font or similar-sized sans serif typeface and uploaded as a PDF.

For advice on writing proposals, see our information on what to include in proposals.

When drafting your document attachments, keep in mind:

  • the assessment criteria used – this can be found in the ‘how we will assess your application’ section
  • the level of expertise of the reviewers – the reviewers will draw upon a broad cross-section of HPC users from disciplines within engineering and the physical sciences. We cannot guarantee that there will be an expert for every application area. Your case for support must be easy for an audience with general scientific knowledge to understand

Application form

When completing your application form, you should take into account the assessment criteria and keep in mind that proposals will be assessed by a generalist panel drawn from relevant research areas across EPSRC’s remit with computational expertise.

You should download and complete the application form from the access to high performance computing application documents.

Please ensure you adhere to the maximum page length and restrictions on the various documents when submitting your proposal. Any missing, over length or unnecessary attachments may result in your proposal being rejected.

Your application should consist of the following sections.

Description of the proposed research and its context

Main stream applications: up to two pages allowed.

Pioneer stream applications: up to four pages allowed.

You should briefly list the main objectives of the proposed research. Explain how access to your chosen service will help you to meet these objectives.

Describe your proposed computational research project:

  • detailing the scientific and wider context
  • explaining what you are aiming to achieve with the computational resource and how the project will advance the current context
  • highlighting the novelty and timeliness of the work
  • explaining how the project will deliver or enable high-quality scientific research

Identify any potential applications of the proposed work. Include how it would contribute to computational science, for example, through:

  • generating new codes
  • development of existing codes
  • increased computational efficiency
  • opening up HPC for new scientific areas and industrial sectors

Explain why the service applied for is the most appropriate resource for this work.

Importance

This must be no more than one side of A4.

Explain why this proposal warrants support in terms of the importance to the UK. This could include, but is not limited to:

  • economic or industrial impacts
  • advancing world-leading research activities
  • identifying how the proposed research contributes to national and EPSRC priority areas

Expertise and track record of the team (up to one page)

This must be no more than one side of A4.

Provide details of your track record in:

  • computational science and engineering
  • porting, developing, and using codes
  • the use of relevant HPC facilities

Highlight any previous publications or other scientific outputs arising from HPC work related to this application. If you are new to HPC, explain how you plan to involve partners and use service support to ensure there is sufficient computational expertise to achieve the stated objectives.

Include any other information you think is relevant to demonstrate your suitability to undertake this work.

Resource management

This must be no more than two sides of A4.

Explain how you plan to use and manage the allocated computational resources, as approved by the technical assessment. It is important that you only request an allocation you can realistically use in the allocation period. This should consider:

  • queuing times
  • potential issues with newly ported codes
  • scheduled maintenance periods
  • the time needed to interpret intermediate results

Any compute units which have not been used by the end of the period will be lost.

The total number of compute units allocated through this process is limited. You need to demonstrate that your codes can make optimal use of this resource, for example, by providing detailed, relevant benchmarking and scaling data. The panel can recommend a reduction in units or time awarded if the original request is not fully justified.

You will need to describe the staff resources available and how they will be used to:

  • start the project promptly
  • use the resource efficiently
  • finish within the allocation period

State details of any additional financial or technical support for this or related research projects relevant to this application. As this proposal is for computing resources only, you should give details of how any other necessary resources for the project (for example, staff time) will be made available.

If the work has novel elements that could be considered high-risk, please indicate how the risks will be managed.

Work plan

This must be no more than one side of A4.

The diagrammatic work plan should justify the requested amount of time and use of the compute resources.

Letters of support

These are optional and these must be no more than one page per individual letter.

These are for partners (academic or industrial) who are integral to the bid. Letters of support must be on headed paper and be signed and dated within six months of the proposal submission date.

Letters of support are only permitted on the following basis:

  • from project partners describing cash or in-kind contributions
  • from community groups confirming benefits the research may provide to their research areas

Any key points supporting why the proposal should be funded must be made within the proposal itself. Letters of support are not to be used as additional space to make the case for the proposal. We will request that any such letters are removed.

There is no limit on the number of letters of support that can be included in an application. However, all letters should be combined and submitted as one PDF document.

Cover letter

This is optional and there is no page limit.

You can use the proposal cover letter to express any other information that you feel is relevant to your application or to highlight anything that has been discussed and agreed with EPSRC staff beforehand. This may include:

  • maternity leave requirements
  • a declaration of interest
  • additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the track record
  • conflict of interest information for EPSRC to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
  • that the application is an invited resubmission

This letter will only be seen by EPSRC and will not be sent to peer review. It will not be shared with the service unless you have specifically requested this. If the letter contains sensitive information, you should state clearly whether the information is confidential.

How we will assess your application

Feasibility and main stream

In the event of this funding opportunity being oversubscribed as to be unmanageable, EPSRC reserves the right to modify the assessment process.

Assessment process

HPC initial triage

For the initial triage, each service will assess the application demand for their service against the amount available for this call.

For each service, should the amount requested be less than the resources available then, subject to a light touch assessment by the service director using the feasibility assessment criteria, those applications will be granted access.

Should any services be oversubscribed then the triage process will look to reallocate applications between services, where technically appropriate, still subject to a light touch assessment by the service director using the feasibility assessment criteria.

Should any services still be oversubscribed, then projects for those services will be assessed through the following process.

Reviewers and cross-service panel

Projects will be assigned a number of reviewers (one to two) based on the scale of resources requested. These reviewers will be drawn from a pool of experts recommended by the individual services. Larger requests will then be considered by a cross-service panel, who will then rank the submitted proposals in priority order for allocation.

All proposals will be considered against the relevant assessment criteria.

HPC triaging post-panel meeting

Following the cross-service panel, there will be a final triaging meeting where UKRI, in conjunction with the relevant service directors, will decide on the total number of compute units and time to be awarded to the successful projects.

The services expect to notify applicants of their outcomes within 10 working days. Successful applicants should then email the service contact detailed in the service specification document to confirm the start date of their project.

Assessment criteria: feasibility

The assessment criteria used to assess Feasibility stream proposals are:

  • quality: the degree to which research excellence is achieved within the proposal itself, or enabled through the proposed extended feasibility or proof of concept
  • resources: the appropriateness of the computational resource requested for the proposed work and the plans for its utilisation
  • importance: the degree to which the research, or research enabled through the proposal, contributes to or helps in addressing key UK societal challenges

Assessment criteria: main

The assessment criteria used to assess main stream proposals are as follows.

Quality (primary)

The degree to which research excellence is achieved within the proposal itself, or enabled through the proposed computational work. In particular, the:

  • novelty, relationship to the context, timeliness and relevance to identified stakeholders
  • ambition, adventure, transformative aspects or potential outcomes
  • suitability of the proposed methodology and the appropriateness of the approach to achieving impact
Resource appropriateness and management (secondary)

The appropriateness of the computational resource requested for the proposed work and the plans for its utilisation, including whether:

  • the computational work could not be better conducted on another available service, such as local university resources
  • the requested computational resources have been fully justified with evidence that the resources will be used efficiently
  • the work plan is appropriate and achievable, demonstrating that there is sufficient staff time dedicated to the project
  • all potential risks have been considered and are appropriately mitigated
Importance (secondary)

The degree to which the research, or research enabled through the proposal, contributes to or helps:

  • enhance the UK’s position as a leader in computational skills and high performance computing techniques
  • maintain the health of other disciplines, addressing key UK societal challenges and future UK economic success, and development of emerging industries
  • complement other UK research funded in the area, including any relationship to the EPSRC portfolio
Applicant and partnerships (secondary)

The applicant’s ability to deliver the proposed project, with a focus on the computational elements of the work. In particular, the:

  • appropriateness of the track record of the applicant
  • balance of skills of the project team, including collaborators

Feedback

Feedback will not be provided, except for proposals considered by a panel where the feedback is specifically requested by the panel. Any such feedback will be communicated the relevant service.

Pioneer stream

In the event of this funding opportunity being oversubscribed as to be unmanageable, EPSRC reserves the right to modify the assessment process.

Assessment process

Applications will be reviewed and prioritised directly by a cross-service panel of experts, selected to comprise a broad cross section of HPC users from disciplines within engineering and physical sciences.

EPSRC aims to engage panel members who are experts in working with large HPC compute resources in academia or industry in the research areas of the submitted applications. However, EPSRC cannot guarantee an expert for every exact application area. Therefore, it is important that the case for support can be understood by a general, scientifically and computationally literate audience.

EPSRC expects to notify applicants of their outcomes within 10 working days. Successful applicants should then email the service contact detailed in the service specification document to confirm the start date of their project.

Assessment criteria

The assessment criteria will be the same as for the main project stream.

Feedback

Feedback will not be provided except where specifically requested by the panel. In that case, the feedback will be communicated by EPSRC.

Contact

Get help with developing your proposal

For help and advice on writing your proposal, please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Ask about access to high performance computing

Research Infrastructure team

Email: researchinfrastructure@epsrc.ukri.org

Richard Bailey

Email: richard.bailey@epsrc.ukri.org

Include ‘Access to HPC’ in the subject line.

Last updated: 30 March 2023

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