EC-FUNDED RESEARCH VISIT OPPORTUNITIES USING HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING - Call for Applications

NEXT CLOSING DATE IS May 15th 2012

HPC-Europa2 is calling for applications from researchers working in Europe to visit any of the 7 centres in its Transnational Access programme. HPC-Europa2 is a consortium of 7 leading HPC centres plus 4 centres of excellence researching HPC tools and techniques.

Visitors will use HPC-Europa2's High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities to improve the quality of their research, while working in collaboration with a scientific researcher from an appropriate local research institute.

The programme, which is fully funded by the European Commission Capacities Area - Research Infrastructures Initiative, offers visiting European researchers:
- access to some of the most powerful High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities in Europe;
- HPC consultancy from experienced staff;
- opportunities to collaborate with scientists working in related fields at a relevant local research institute;
- travel costs, subsistence expenses and accommodation (may be in a shared flat).

HPC-Europa2 builds on the success of the previous EC-funded visitor programmes: MINOS, ACCESS and TRACS. The 7 HPC-Europa2 centres which offer Transnational Access are: CINECA (Italy), EPCC (UK), BSC (Spain), GENCI-CINES (France), HLRS (Germany), SARA (the Netherlands) and CSC (Finland).

APPLICATION AND ELIGIBILITY

Applications for the programme are welcomed from academic or industrial researchers at any level, from senior postgraduate students to the most senior researchers, who are working on non-proprietary research in any discipline to which access to HPC facilities is beneficial.

Applicants must be working in a research group based in an eligible country, i.e. any EU member state or Associated State (Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey). Note that researchers are NOT eligible for visits to centres in the country where they are currently carrying out their research.

For full details of the European Commission's eligibility requirements, see http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=countries. The countries eligible for the HPC-EUROPA2 Programme are listed as "COUNTRIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE 7th FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME". Note that the additional countries with European Community (EC) international agreements on S&T (Section II of the same document) are not currently eligible for HPC-Europa2.

Applications should be made only using the on-line application form at http://www.hpc-europa.eu/ and must be received by the next closing date. Successful applicants will visit for between one and three months, during the period from two to six months after the call closing date. (see FAQ: How long in advance should I apply for a visit?)

The selection panel approves applications on the basis of scientific merit. For this reason, applicants are strongly encouraged, where possible, to identify a suitable researcher with whom to collaborate BEFORE applying, as this greatly increases the chances of the application being approved.

Researchers who do not have access to similar HPC facilities are particularly encouraged to apply.

HPC-Europa2 has been funded for 4 years from January 2009, and selection meetings will be held approximately 4 times per year.

Further information and the on-line application form are available via the webpage at: http://www.hpc-europa.eu/

If you have any questions regarding this programme, the HPC-Europa2 team can be contacted at access@hpc-europa.org

Click here to see some statistics about applications received in years 1 and 2 (2009/2010)

Click here to see all the future Closing Dates