Submitting Proposals for MSCF Use

Proposals for using MSCF compute resources are divided in two categories:

EMSL User System
"Pilot Projects" are proposals of general research (non-Grand Challenge) requiring the use of MSCF computers or Graphics & Visualization tools*. Restrictions: maximum 75,000 processor hours; maximum duration 1 year. List as your Point-of-Contact Erich Vorpagel, Visualization and User Services group. (more details)
Computational Grand Challenge Projects
"Grand Challenges" now referred to as "Computationally Intense Research" are complex problems in science and engineering with broad scientific and environmental or economic impacts whose solution can be advanced by applying high-performance computing techniques and resources. Only a few, large proposals are accepted per year. We have issued the call for Computationally Intense Research Applications for the 2009 fiscal year (October 1 through September) (more details)

MSCF Lack-of-Use policy

To insure the efficient use of our computing resources the MSCF management will be monitoring all computer project accounts every month. Any projects that have had no usage (project fund withdrawal) during the month will be notified for lack-of-use. Only the project's principle investigator will receive this message. Upon receipt of this first message the project PI will have to provide a justification as to why the project should continue to be supported by the MSCF. If no justification is received within a month, and a second lack-of-use notice is sent, the project allocation will be withdrawn and all account access will be terminated for that specific project. This will allow us to reallocate these hours to other projects waiting to be funded. This policy started on January 1, 2004.

*In order to better monitor the use of compute resources, ALL non-Grand Challenge projects must be registered under the User Proposal system. This includes short-term projects. If accepted, users must apply for accounts on the computers listed in the proposal (see "Accounts"). The proposal review typically takes less than 6 weeks for Pilot Project proposals and up to 12 weeks for Grand Challenge Applications.

See "Computer Hardware" or "Visualization" for descriptions and lists of the equipment available at the MSCF.