Press Releases

SHARCNET is issuing a new call for proposals for Dedicated Programming Support. This programme provides support for computational projects of exceptional potential that will have lasting impact and value and that require significant support from SHARCNET to proceed.

For Round VII, applications are encouraged that satisfy the programme objectives and priority will be given to proposals that:

• Propose to develop innovative visualization applications and techniques that emphasize the visualization of large datasets especially using distributed/parallel visualization/rendering techniques.
• Propose a programme of work that will enable innovative projects from disciplines that are traditionally not major users of HPC.

Applications are submitted via SHARCNET’s webportal and are due by December 20, 2015. Note that users must have a SHARCNET webportal account in order to access the online form.

For additional information, please refer to the application guidelines. Questions should be addressed to research-support@sharcnet.ca.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is consulting with the broader community on their core funding programs (the Innovation Fund, the John R. Evans Leaders Fund, the College-Industry Innovation Fund, the Cyberinfrastructure Initiative and the Infrastructure Operating Fund). They also seek input on a few key strategic issues of relevance to the research community and other stakeholders.

The purpose of the consultations are to:

• identify opportunities for better alignment with institutional and community needs;
• make adjustments to the design of its funds to address evolving priorities; and,
• encourage the development of research infrastructure proposals of the highest quality, in order to better enhance the capacity of institutions and their researchers to conduct world-class research and technology development.

Ontario meetings are planned for:

London: Nov. 3, 13:00-15:00, Western University
Waterloo: Nov. 4, 09:00-11:00, Delta Waterloo
Toronto: Nov. 5, 09:00-11:00, Intercontinental Toronto Yorkville
Ottawa: Nov. 10, 09:00-11:00, Ottawa Marriott Hotel

A full listing is available on the CFI website.

Written comments are also invited by November 30, 2015, email: consultation@innovation.ca

For more information, including RSVP details, please refer to the CFI website.

The 30th anniversary of the HPCS conference will be held at the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (CCIS) on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton, AB, June 19-22, 2016. The 2016 conference will combine two annual national conferences: CANHEIT, under the direction of CUCCIO, and the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPCS), under the direction of Compute Canada.

Stay tuned for more details.

Researchers building platforms or portals to serve the needs of a community of users are invited to apply to Compute Canada’s 2016 Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) competition, which grants access to computing and storage resources on Compute Canada’s systems.

Introduced in 2014, the RPP competition is targeted at applications that use platforms or portals to improve access to shared datasets, enhance existing online research tools and facilities, or advance national or international research collaborations. Resource allocations in this competition may be awarded over multiple years, up to a maximum of three years. The RPP competition is open to any researcher based at a Canadian academic institution who is eligible to apply for funding to the federal granting agencies.

The RPP competition is delivered in two stages:

1. Letter of Intent (LOI) Stage
   This stage is non-competitive and used to ensure project alignment with the RPP competition rules. Submissions are generally one page, providing a high-level summary of the project’s rationale, operation and scope.
2. Full Application Stage
   Successful LOIs will be invited to submit a Full Application. This stage requires further details on the requested Compute Canada resources, operation and management of the platform or portal, and the anticipated impacts and opportunities.

Groups are encouraged to use the RPP competition if their application falls within any of the following categories:

• Resources requested on behalf of a large community of users that will be reallocated to individuals and small groups following the award.
• Applications that provide a public platform that will make use of Compute Canada computing or storage.
• Groups engaging in international agreements to provide multi-year computing or storage solutions based in Canada.
• Recipients of the Major Science Initiative from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
• Groups that are providing shared data sets accessible using a third party (non-Compute Canada) interface.

Full criteria details and submission guidelines are available in the RPP Competition Guide. Letters of Intent due by August 13, 2015. More info

Compute Canada is pleased to announce its two pairs of scholarships for the 2015 Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) have been awarded to Gurpreet Singh, a graduate student at the University of Lethbridge, and his co-applicant James Desjardins, a SHARCNET High Performance Computing Consultant at Brock University; and Jonathan Armoza, a graduate student at McGill University, and his co-applicant Félix-Antoine Fortin, a Calcul Québec HPC Analyst at Université Laval. More info