Call on Advanced Computing Projects (3rd edition) - A2 Project or Regular Access

The Foundation for Science and Technology, I. P. (FCT) manages the National Network for Advanced Computing (RNCA) and seeks to aggregate the national advanced computing resources, promoting cooperation between the various centers involved and developing national and international partnerships with other entities. Under the terms of the Regulations for Advanced Computing Projects, published under no. 10/2022 at Diário da República, the allocation of RNCA computing resources is carried out following a competitive call whose terms are published at the FCT website.

• High Performance Computing (HPC)
• Scientific Cloud Computing (SCC) or Virtual Research Environment (VRE)

Consult further details about the platforms and available resources in the Technical Sheet

• A0 –Experimental Access recommended for teams with no previous experience or history of using RNCA resources or for using visualisation resources.
• A1 –Preparatory or Development Access recommended for software performance testing, code optimisation, scalability testing, benchmarking, re-factoring or for short duration projects.
• A2 –Project or Regular Access recommended for scientific or innovation projects whose team has consolidated previous experience.

Table. Summary of access typologies with duration and maximum limits per application.

Are beneficiaries, individually or in co-promotion:

• R&D (Research and Development) institutions;
• Collaborative laboratories;
• Technological interface centers;
• Science and technology infrastructures;
• Science and technology networks and consortia;
• Private non-profit institutions whose main objective is R&D activities;
• Digital Innovation Poles;
• Other public and private non-profit institutions that develop or participate in research, development, or innovation activities;
• Companies developing advanced computing projects in research, development or innovation activities;
• Individuals operating in Portugal and who wish to develop advanced computing projects in any scientific area.

Regarding applications from companies as beneficiaries, the advanced computing projects should:

• occur within the scope of pre-competitive research and innovation, without market value;
• not exceed 50% of the total computational allocation to be allocated in this competition.

Technical Suitability

• T1: Technical suitability to RNCA resources (10%)
• T2: Computational resources planning and reasonableness (20%)
• T3: Work Plan (10%)

Scientific Merit

• S1: Scientific relevance which includes the proposed activity (20%)
• S2: Justification of the computational activity to support the scientific project (20%)
• S3: Scientific merit and experience of the group and investigator in charge (15%)
• S4: Dissemination and exploitation of results (5%)

Applications must be submitted in English and on the appropriate electronic form.

For other types of access:

A0: RNCA webpage

A1: myFCT form at "Call on Advanced Computing Resources (3rd edition) - A1 Preparatory or Development Access"

Information about applications can be requested through the email address: rnca@fccn.pt 

No information published on this page replaces or supersedes the Regulation and the Call Notice.