The resources in this call are provided by some of the partners of the PRACE and FENIX Research Infrastructure (https://fenix-ri.eu/), funded with national resources by its partners.
The PRACE-FENIX programme is open to all Europe-based researchers needing resource allocations regardless of funding sources. 10% of the available resources can be awarded to researchers from associated countries.
Researchers are eligible to apply for the call for proposals if they need Cloud computing service.
The minimum request depends on the system of interest as reported in the table below.
The following table summarises the resources planned to be available during the allocation period of the 2026 cut-off:
| Component | Site (Country) | Minimum Request | Total Resources offered | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Computing Services | ||||
| GAIA Cloud | CINECA (IT) | 1 vCPUs 30 GB storage 1 floating IP | 500 vCPUs 30 TB CEPH storage 30 floating IPs | vCPUs |
| JSC Cloud | JSC (DE) | 1 VM | 1500 vCPUs 3000 GB Memory | vCPUs |
| PCSS Cloud | PCSS (PL) | 1 VM | up to 9000 vCPUs, Memory | vCPUs |
Further details on the components are provided below:
Components from CINECA (Italy)
- GAIA Cloud: GAIA HPC Cloud[1] is an infrastructure combining cloud flexibility with High Performance Computing power. Hosted at CINECA Dama Technopole in Bologna, it is the largest HPC cloud for research in Italy. It supports data processing, analysis and data management services, sensitive workloads, and Kubernetes-based automation. GAIA proves particularly suitable for handling AI workloads, such as fine-tuning and inference, applicable across multiple scientific domains. Based on OpenStack virtualization tool, it provides access to computing nodes (CPU Intel Xeon Sierra Forrest 144 cores 2.2GHz) and CEPH storage (both IOPS-optimized and Capacity-optimized). GAIA operates under an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. CINECA manages hardware and virtualization, while users control their environments. The system empowers researchers with scalable, customizable, and high-performance resources.
Components from JSC (Germany)
- JSC Cloud: A subset of the hardware listed at the official documentation [2] is available for FENIX. A specific amount of the mentioned AMD EPYC Rome 7742 64-core CPU nodes that feature 256 GB DDR4 memory. Nodes with an additional Nvidia Volta V100 GPU with 16 GB high-bandwidth memory are available.
- Research groups that have already allocated resources on JSC Cloud are eligible to apply. However, such projects will be given lower priority in the evaluation process than projects that have not previously used resources from this cloud infrastructure.
Components from PCSS (Poland)
Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS) offers advanced capabilities for performing cloud computing in the IaaS model as well as managed services. Users have access to a private cloud based on OpenStack and VMware technologies, enabling flexible deployment of virtual machines and container environments. PSNC’s cloud resources provide high scalability in terms of computing power, memory, and storage capacity. The cloud environment can be integrated with HPC infrastructure, allowing traditional cloud workloads to be combined with high-performance computing. PCSS is ISO certified computing center (27001:2023 – 08, 9001:2015). All infrastructure is hosted in secure data centers with professional monitoring and technical support. Part of the PCSS’s resources [3] will be available for the scientific processing in PRACE-FENIX infrastructure. The basic configurations of single VM: 2vcpu, 8 GB RAM, 50 GB nvme, 1 floating ip; 4vcpu 16GB RAM, 50 GB nvme, 1 floating ip; 8vcpu, 32 GB RAM, 50 GB nvme, 1 floating ip. The physical node configuration: 2 x AMD EPYC 7513 32core; 1 TB RAM; local nvme 2 TB[4] .
In particular, projects with active allocations will
- Be assessed to justify the need for additional resources, including why existing allocations cannot meet their needs.
- Have their application ranked lower unless they demonstrate significant new scientific or technical contributions.
This measure will ensure equitable access to resources and encourage the participation of new users and projects.
[1] GAIA — CINECA HPC Documentation 1.0 documentation
[2] https://apps.fz-juelich.de/jsc/hps/jsccloud/configuration.html#hardware-overview
[3]PCSS resources https://help.pcss.plcloud.pl/portal/hpc/3%20System%20Architecture%20and%20Features/#hardware-architecture
[4] PCSS Cloud https://docs.cloud.psnc.pl/en/
PRACE-FENIX Proposal Requirements
- Short description of the scientific goals and objectives including progress beyond state of the art and scientific impact
- Type of cloud computing resource required
- Resources requests based on limits defined above with clear indication on how the resources have been estimated
- Description of the software and services needed to successfully complete the project
- Description of the research methods (including a project work plan with a timeline), algorithms, and code parallelisation approach (including memory requirements)
- Information on Data Management
- Description of special needs (if any)
After the end of the submission deadline all proposals received through the Call will be subjected to a light administrative verification, to check if they can be admitted to the Call. Proposals that successfully pass the administrative verification will undergo a Technical and a Scientific Evaluation.
The Technical Evaluation will be performed by the technical experts at the HPC centres from which the applicant is requesting resources. The technical assessment is based on the following criterion:
- Feasibility of the requested resource. The requested system(s) must be suitable for the proposed project.
The Scientific Evaluation is performed by an in-house panel of experts. The Review Panel established by PRACE composed by up to ten (10) well-known scientists (they can be different for each Call) shall discuss the scientific merit of the proposals with the support of a technical team and decides which proposal should be granted based on the criteria listed below.
- Soundness of the Methodology and tools: Does the request describe appropriate tools, methods, and approaches for addressing the research objectives?
- Appropriateness Research Plan: Is the research plan appropriate to achieve the scientific goals described in the proposal? Has the applicant properly estimated the resources?
- Appropriateness of the Project Timeline: Has the applicant estimated the right number of simulations to achieve the goals in the given time?
- Significance of the Proposed Research: Is the proposed work supported by a grant or grants that have undergone review for intellectual merit and/or broader impact. What is the scientific impact?
The final decision on awarding a proposal or not, is taken during the Review Panel meeting where all the proposals will be discussed; both the Technical and Scientific Evaluations will be taken into consideration.
Complains concerning the Peer Review process can be sent to peer-review[at]prace-ri.eu within one week time after receiving the final decision.
The submission of proposal is done via the PRACE peer-review platform – https://pracecalls.eu/ – where an online form should be filled in with administrative information on the project and team members, and the Project scope and plan document uploaded as a pdf file. The word template for the Project scope and plan document is available for download here . To submit their proposals, applicants are then invited to create an account on the PRACE platform in case they do not have yet one.
The application form should be dully filled in and submitted by the submission deadline. Only proposals submitted before the deadline will be considered for the Call. This is the only possible way to submit a proposal to the PRACE-FENIX Call.
All proposals must be written in English. Proposals written in other languages than English will not be considered.
After submitting the proposals, applicants will receive an automatic notification email confirming the submission of the proposals. It is advised to check your spam folder, in case the automatic e-mail is flagged as such by applicant’s e-mail system.
For technical questions or support before the application submission, you can contact the PRACE and FENIX team at fenix-coord[at]fz-juelich.de . In case of issues related to the platform, users are invited to contact the PRACE peer-review office via the email peer-review[at]prace-ri.eu.
The Principal Investigator (PI) shall lead the project and is expected to be an essential participant in its implementation. The PI will have the overall responsibility for the management of the project and interactions with PRACE. Please make sure that the contact details for the PI are correct and that email addresses used are professional email addresses.
The usage of PRACE and FENIX resources needs to be acknowledged for all data produced through PRACE and FENIX allocations, both in publications and when depositing the data to other infrastructures.
The PI commits to:
- Provide to PRACE and/or FENIX a final report (max. 1 page) within 3 months from the completion of an allocation. The report shall describe in particular if and how the objectives of the project have been achieved and, if not, which were the encountered challenges. The report should be submitted via the platform and, will be kept for internal PRACE and FENIX use and it will not be published if not agreed in advance with the PI.
- Acknowledge the role of the HPC Centre, FENIX RI and PRACE in all publications which include the results above mentioned. Users shall use the following wording in such acknowledgement in all such papers and other publications: “We acknowledge FENIX and PRACE for awarding access to the PRACE and/or FENIX Infrastructure resources at [hosting site], which are funded with national funds by the PRACE and/or FENIX partners.”
- Allow PRACE and FENIX to publish their name together with the title of their project, scientific goals and objectives, and awarded resources on the PRACE and FENIX website.
- Awardees will be expected to reply favourably when asked to be interviewed for PRACE and FENIX publications and/or send visualisations or other materials for promotional purposes.
In case applicants would like to apply for an extension of an already awarded project, please follow the below indications:
- The extension is requested for allocation time without additional resources
- If the extension is for less than 3 months, the applicant is asked to contact the service provider. The decision on the extension will be taken directly by the FENIX provider.
- If the extension is for more than 3 months, the applicant is required to submit a new project clearly mentioning what has been achieved in the previous project(s) and why new resources are needed.
- The extension is requested for the need of additional resources with or without an extension in the time of the allocation
- The applicant is asked to submit a new project clearly mentioning what has been achieved in the previous project(s) and why new resources are needed.