It means that you will be given priority on a shared Compute Canada system. If you make use of that priority by submitting a steady load of computational “jobs” throughout the year, you should get at least the level of core-years you have been allocated. This is something known as a “fair-share” system, not a “dedicated use” system. If your workload is not steady, but will rather come as a burst during a certain time of year, you are asked to note this in your application and we will attempt to accommodate your workflow. Please visit this page to know more about compute allocations and scheduling.

Compute Canada provides a broad spectrum of advanced computing services in support of research, including technical support, training and application. In this call for proposals, you will be able to request access to:

• General Purpose systems
• Large shared memory systems
• General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU)
• Storage
• Cloud

See more information on the available resources for RAC and the services provided by Compute Canada

No, Compute Canada is not a funding agency. Through our Resource Allocation Competitions, we offer computing time and storage space in our systems.

Compute Canada’s annual Resource Allocation Competitions (RAC) are peer-reviewed competitions that provide priority computing time and storage space on Compute Canada systems. These competitions are open to projects from all disciplines, from humanities to subatomic physics. The allocation requests are peer-reviewed and awarded based on scientific merit and the quality of the research applicant.

Learn more about our Resource Allocation Competitions.

Any individual who is eligible to apply to national granting councils for funding is eligible to apply for an allocation. Typically, this means that regular faculty are eligible to apply while postdoctoral fellows and graduate students are not. Individuals who have adjunct status may apply for an allocation if the project for which the allocation is requested is eligible for funding from CFI or the granting councils. A PI cannot submit more than one individual application, but can be a participant in other submissions. A PI may simultaneously hold an individual RAC allocation and an RPP allocation.

The advanced research computing (ARC) needs of the Canadian research community continue to grow as the next generation of scientific instruments is deployed, as ARC becomes relevant to answering key questions in an ever broader list of disciplines, as new datasets are gathered and mined in innovative ways, and as technological advances allow researchers to construct ever more precise models of the world around us. The current CC infrastructure must keep pace with the needs of Canadian researchers. Demand for resources has grown each year and our systems are currently running at maximum capacity.

The Compute Canada team of experts is available to assist researchers in making use of their allocations. This may include installing and configuring software packages, assistance in code optimization, and detailed advice on how to solve technical issues. While the CC team member may end up writing some code for your group, your allocation does not entitle you to deep “embedded” programming support. As a rule of thumb, our staff will help solve problems requiring a few days of their effort, not a few months of their effort.

Any researcher interested in applying to the RPP or RRG competitions must be registered with the Compute Canada DataBase (CCDB). Instructions for registering with the CCDB can be found on the Compute Canada website. All applications must be submitted electronically through the CCDB’s Resource Applications section.

Yes, you may submit or participate in proposals to both competitions; however, you should not submit the same project to both competitions. Each competition has specific eligibility criteria, which are outlined in the corresponding competition guide.

RRG Competition Guide

RPP Competition Guide

Prior to submitting a proposal, you should review each competition’s criteria to ensure your project aligns with the focus. If after reviewing the competition guides you still have questions or concerns, please contact us at rac@computecanada.ca.

Yes. PIs and all co-PIs of a RAC application are required to submit a CCV.. Integrating CCV into the Compute Canada DataBase (CCDB) makes it easier for applicants to upload their CVs and standardize their format. It also helps the expert review committees evaluate the quality of each project’s research team. For instructions on how to submit a CCV, read the Compute Canada CCV Submission Guide.

Yes. A list of key terms used in the competition and application process is available here. Please consult this Glossary when preparing your application.

Compute Canada’s Resource Allocation Competitions only grant access to Compute Canada infrastructure. If you have questions about whether the infrastructure you are using is part of Compute Canada’s national platform, please contact us at rac@computecanada.ca.

No. You can request access to a service and we will find the best location in our network to host that service. If you did happen to have an existing collaboration, you could mention it and we can pick the most convenient option, but it is not a requirement.

A compute allocation corresponds to a target for use over a period of time, usually a year.  For storage, and for certain cloud resources, this is a maximum amount. Allocations are usually made in terms of core years, GPU years, or storage space. Storage allocations are the most straightforward to understand: research groups will get a maximum amount of storage that they can use exclusively throughout the allocation period. Core year and GPU year allocations are more difficult to understand because these allocations are meant to capture average use throughout the allocation period—typically meant to be a year—and this use will occur across a set of resources shared with other research groups. To know more about compute allocations, click here.

Yes. Any individual who is eligible to apply to national granting councils for funding is eligible to apply for an allocation, irrespective of the size of the research team or the funding received.

One core-year is the equivalent of using one CPU core continuously for a full year. Using 12 cores for a month, or 365 cores for a single day are both equivalent to 1 core-year. Definitions for other technical terms can be found in the Compute Canada Technical Glossary.

No. The published deadline for submitting final applications to the RRG and RPP competitions is a final deadline. There will be no extensions and late submissions will not be accepted. Any concerns with this policy may be directed to rac@computecanada.ca.

Science scores are based on the quality of the science outlined in the proposal, the qualifications of the principal investigators, HQP training opportunities, and the technical justification for the requested resources. Past usage and overall experience are also taken into consideration.

All applicants will be notified of their competition results in March. You will be contacted by email with any additional information you may need or action items required of you to finalize your allocation. Once all recipients have been privately notified, Compute Canada will publish a list of recipients, project allocation amounts, and allocation values to its public website.

All successful allocations are activated in April. The exact starting date will be confirmed in your notification letter.

Compute Canada’s annual Resource Allocation Competitions announce their formal Calls for Submissions early in the Fall each year with final submissions due in November. An out-of-round application process is available for special cases, and applications are accepted up to July 30 of any year.

A PI may submit an out-of-round application to the RRG program for the following reasons:

1. PI is a new faculty. This means that you started a new faculty position at a Canadian academic institution during or just after the previous competition round;

OR

1. PI has a special opportunity to make a significant scientific breakthrough that you could not have anticipated within the application period for the previous round. In this case, a description of the breakthrough of no more than one page is required as proof of eligibility.

Out-of-round applications follow the same review process as the applications submitted to the regular round. The resulting allocations may have different start dates but will have the same expiry date as the ongoing RRG program. This means, for example, that if you receive an out-of-round allocation in June, it will expire when all other RRGs do at the end of March of the following year.

The annual allocation process reserves only a small proportion of resources for opportunistic and out-of-round usage. Therefore, there are very limited resources available for out-of-round, so large asks may be denied through this process and be required to apply for the next regular round.

For more information, or to request an Out-of-Round Application, please contact rac@computecanada.ca.

No. Use of your total allocation cannot be fully guaranteed and is contingent to the availability of our systems. You should receive the full allocation listed above if you run in a reasonably constant manner over the year. If you expect to have an uneven workload, please contact the system’s support team so that they can ensure you have access to the resources you require.

Yes, applicants may choose the scientific committee they would like to review their proposals; however, Compute Canada reserves the right to assign the proposal to another committee if necessary.

Each year, our infrastructure is heavily oversubscribed. A scaling function, endorsed by the Chairs of the Expert Review Committees, is applied to compute requests to provide a means by which decisions on RAC allocations in a context of insufficient capacity can be made. For the RAC 2018, this function was set so that only applications with a science score of 2.0 or higher received an allocation, with a maximum of 83% of their total allocation request being met for those with a score of 5. Visit the 2018 Resource Allocations Competition Results page for more details about the scaling function and other RAC stats.

Led by Compute Canada’s Chief Science Officer, the Resource Allocation Competition (RAC) Administrative Committee decides the competition policies, oversees the entire competition process and provides technical and administrative support to the Expert Review Committees. While the expert review committees determine the merit of the proposal and the appropriate resource allocation, the RAC Administrative Committee is responsible for making those allocations “fit” on existing Compute Canada resources. This may involve applying a scaling to all allocations, but that scaling will be based on the science score from the expert committee, not an evaluation by the RAC Administrative Committee. This RAC Administrative Committee is composed of individuals who are knowledgeable of Compute Canada resources and are significantly experienced in the RAC process. It is comprised of technical and administrative leaders representing each region (WestGrid, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec, and ACENET).

The growing demand for Compute Canada resources is reflective of global trends of increased data-intensive research. Within Canada’s research community, we are seeing computational tools and services increasingly being used to identify patterns, undertake modelling and simulations, and support the collection and distribution of massive volumes of data. Table 1 below shows the increase in size of compute and storage resource requests, as well as the average amount awarded, since 2011. 

Table 1: Compute supply vs. demand

Yes. In order to renew your allocation or ask for additional resources for next year, you must submit a new RAC application each fall. Calls for proposals will be posted on the Resource Allocations Competitions page in the Accessing Resources section of the Research Portal.

Unlike the Resource Allocation Competition process, the Rapid Access Service (RAS) is not a guaranteed allocation of certain computational resources. It is a shared pool of unallocated resources. These resources are available for “opportunistic use” to anyone with an active Compute Canada account. Visit the RAS page for more information.

Each annual Resource Allocation Competition (RAC) is handled as a separate process. The current projects have an advantage in that they have demonstrated usage and success stories, but not an advantage by policy.

Unlike the Resource Allocation Competition process, the Rapid Access Service (RAS) is not a guaranteed allocation of certain computational resources. It is a shared pool of unallocated resources. These resources are available for “opportunistic use” to anyone with an active Compute Canada account. Visit the RAS page for more information.