Summary of the Call for Proposals for 5th PRACE Project Access and Multi-year Access (Tier-0)

On 17th April 2012 PRACE opened its 5th Project Access Call for Proposals, intended for large-scale projects of excellent scientific merit, for which a significant European added-value and major impact at international level is anticipated. Through its calls PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), the European research infrastructure for High Performance Computing (HPC), makes it possible for researchers from across Europe and the world to use its Tier-0 HPC systems.

For the first time since its birth on 23rd April 2010, the entire PRACE Tier-0 Research Infrastructure is available: a record-setting capacity of 15 Petaflop/s at peak performance on 6 architectures that complement each other:

  • IBM Blue Gene/Q "JUQUEEN" (GCS@Jülich, Germany)
  • Bull Bullx cluster "CURIE" (GENCI@CEA, France)
  • Cray XE6 "HERMIT" (GCS@HLRS, Germany)
  • SuperMUC (GCS@LRZ, Germany)
  • MareNostrum (BSC, Spain)
  • FERMI (CINECA, Italy)

The 5th Call also introduces two significant innovations:

  • The possibility to apply for access for a 2-year period (multi-year access, renewable under conditions).
  • The possibility for commercial companies to apply for access for Open R&D with the obligation to publish the results obtained in publicly available media.

The following criteria apply specifically to proposals from commercial companies:

  • The company needs to have its head office and/or substantial R&D activity in Europe.
  • Commercial companies may apply on their own or in collaboration with academia.
  • Commercial companies applying on their own will be limited to a maximum of 5% of the total computing resources of a single PRACE system.

All applications – whether submitted by academia or by commercial companies – will be evaluated against the highest PRACE peer-review criteria: They must demonstrate scientific excellence and focus on topics of major relevance for European research and include elements of novelty, transformative aspects and have a recognised scientific impact.

The PRACE 5th Call for Proposals can be found on the PRACE website: http://www.prace-ri.eu

Keep in mind the following important dates related to this Call:
Opening date: April 17st, 2012
Closing date: May 30st, 2012, 12:00 CEST
Allocation starting date of awarded proposals: 1st November 2012

For any queries related to applications please contact:
Tier-0: peer-review (at) prace-ri.eu