Call Advanced Computing Projects (5th ed) - A2 Regular Access | Fast-track

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) manages the National Advanced Computing Network (RNCA). FCT manages the RNCA and seeks to aggregate national advanced computing resources, promoting cooperation between the various centres involved and developing national and international partnerships with other entities. Under the terms of the Advanced Computing Projects Regulation, published under no. 10/2022 in the Diário da República, the allocation of RNCA computing resources is made following a tender procedure whose terms are publicised on the FCT website.

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 call.

• High Performance Computing (HPC)
• Artificial Intelligence Computing (IA)
• Scientific Cloud Computing (SCC)

These advanced computational models aim to support applications in various areas, such as bioinformatics, climate, materials and life science, computational chemistry, physics, and civil engineering, among others, thus supporting research and enhancing the competitiveness of the national industry.

• A0 – Experimental Access recommended for teams with no previous experience or history of using RNCA resources to test and explore the available HPC, AI, Cloud or visualisation resources for 6 months.
• A1 – Development Access recommended for software performance testing, code optimisation, scalability testing, benchmarking, re-factoring for 3 - 12 months.
• A2 – Regular Access recommended for scientific or innovation projects whose team has consolidated previous experience and needs resources in Deucalion and/or Cirrus+Stratus platforms for 12 months.
• A3 - Larger Access recommended for scientific or innovation projects whose team has consolidated previous experience and require larger amounts of resources on the Deucalion or MareNostrum 5 platforms for 12 months.

See more details on the limits and maximum duration for each type in section 3 of the Call Notice - check supporting documentation in the sidebar.

Scientific evaluation - Fast track vs. full track

A2 and A3 applications that meet at least one of the following criteria:

a) Be associated with a project(s) of the PI or co- PI approved with prior evaluation of scientific merit in Advanced Computing Project Competitions (CPCA) in the last 3 years;

b) Each application is associated with a project approved by the PI or co-RI in another call funded by FCT in the last 3 years, and that project is active at the time of application;

>>> Will does not require a new assessment of scientific merit.

All A2 and A3 applications without a previous scientific evaluation will be subject to a new scientific merit evaluation by external evaluation panels invited by FCT, I.P. (P1-P6), according to the evaluation criteria. A2 and A3 projects that should follow this full track should apply on the next submission round between January 16 and February 27, 2025.

Technical validation

All A2 applications will only be submitted for validation of technical suitability by the technical teams operating the computing platforms in accordance with the following simplified criteria:

• T1: Technical suitability to RNCA resources 
• T2: Computational resources reasonableness 
• T3: Work Plan

This validation is based on the qualitative classification of "accepted" and "not accepted", with no final score being calculated. Accepted applications will be dealt with in rounds and on a first-come, first-served basis until the defined quota is exhausted.

A2 Applications - fast-track only -  must be submitted in English on a form on the myFCT platform until 10th October 2024 at 5 pm (Lisbon time)

Important note: The following limits defined in the call for proposals apply:

• Limits for A2 applications: Each IR can submit a maximum of ONE application in each typology, subject to the availability of resources (see point 9 of the call notice).
• Resource limit for A2 projects: 3.000.000 CPU core.hours,  8.760 GPU.hours, 12 months of duration (see point 3.2 of the call notice).

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.