To provide greater flexibility to NCAR scientists regarding timelines of project readiness and to allow the NCAR Strategic Capability (NSC) program to better support activities that arise during the course of the year, we have decided to divide the NSC proposal process into two opportunities during the year. We are still accepting requests for the March 2 submission deadline and May 1 start, and we will also be accepting requests approximately six months later this year.
A portion of the NSC's 100 million core-hours will be awarded at each submission opportunity; and projects that start in the fall would also have 12 months to complete. However, a project for the same or similar work can only receive an allocation once a year.
We strongly encourage potential submitters to consider applying to the opportunity that best aligns with their project's anticipated timetable and readiness. In most cases, a project should consider the opportunity that starts shortly *after* their planned start, so that preliminary and benchmarking results can be submitted as part of the NSC proposal.
To help balance the allocation of NSC core-hours, we would be interested in hearing from any potential NSC project leads who feels that a request for core-hours later this year may be a good fit for their expected activities. Please send a brief email to alloc@ucar.edu by March 2.
The original call for NSC requests follows and remains applicable, except for the addition of the fall opportunity:
NCAR computational scientists are encouraged to submit requests for the next round of NCAR Strategic Capability (NSC) projects to run on the Yellowstone system. The deadline for submissions is March 2, 2015.
NSC project allocations target large-scale activities that directly relate to one or more specific priorities in the new NCAR strategic plan. Requests that address the grand challenges in the Path Forward, including the development of global models with limited-area higher-resolution grids and the use of data assimilation techniques and statistics with model development and verification, are especially encouraged.
NSC projects must be technically ready to begin production runs starting May 1, 2015, and should be completed within 12 months in most cases. NSC projects requiring more than one year’s allocation must submit continuation requests each year to report progress toward the project’s objectives. An estimated 100 million core-hours will be available for the 2015 projects.
For more information and how to apply, see the NSC allocations documentation at http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/docs/allocations/ncar/nsc.
Because of the competitive nature of these allocations, labs may have chosen to coordinate submissions from each lab. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact their lab's or division's allocation representative prior to submitting a request.
Please send any questions to alloc@ucar.edu.
