Hemispheric Scalable Research Challenge (H-SRC)

Announcement:

In order to support collaborations between technologists and scholars across the humanities, arts, social science and sciences, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Advanced Research and Technology and Collaboratory for the Americas (ARTCA), the Latin American Advanced Networks Cooperation (RedClara), the Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (I-CHASS), and partner universities from throughout the Americas invite scholars and collaborative teams to apply for computational resources that will enable discovery and visionary research in their fields.  Winners will have access to technical consultation and training for access to remote, high-end clusters and supercomputers — to encourage research projects to explore the possibilities offered by advanced computational resources.

Any individual or team of researchers who are interested in collaborative work across disciplines and that can benefit from using computational tools to advance their research discovery and enquiry are encouraged to apply.  Technical expertise is not a prerequisite for the award of these computational resources.

The Program seeks to create a culture of generous collaboration among the sciences, humanities, arts and social science to develop solutions to large-scale research problems.  Open to collaborations involving researchers of all manner of technical and/or non-technical expertise, the H-SRC will provide opportunities for humanities, arts, and social science researchers to work with computer scientists and scientist at centers already familiar with the challenges of intensive data mining, visualization, and other demanding applications. It seeks to make available the human/technical resources for researchers to develop skills for use with high performance computing tools and methods.

Program Description:
The H-SRC will partner universities and institutes throughout the Americas including but not limited to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), Petropolis, RJ, Brazil,  Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, as well as the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA), and will facilitate technical assistance, software availability, training and CPU hours to visionary researchers pushing the boundaries of interdisiplinary research depending on the needs of each project.  The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has also agreed to partner with H-SRC to facilitate access to its records databases and facilitate access to the records of its affiliates throughout the Americas.

This H-SRC will provide access to computational resources between 25,000 and 500,000 CPU hours per project and may include visualization tools and expertise as well.

Working in consultation with supercomputing specialists, humanities, arts, social science and science researchers winning these allocations will have the ability to leverage high-end cyberinfrastructure tools, technical assistance, compute and intellectual resources to further their project research.  H-SRC will provide opportunities for support of projects in the areas of visualization and experimentation for the purposes of testing concepts, new theories and conducting proof of concept studies.  Smaller projects that have the capacity to scale but which do not currently have the compute resources or the technical resources to conduct larger studies are also encouraged to apply.

Who May Apply:
Researchers or collaborative research groups with projects that may be scalable such that it can use high performance computing and advanced visualization resources.  Research questions answerable across large volumes of data or possible only after automated and repeated calculations are ideal. Pure science projects not demonstrating collaboration with partners in the Humanities, Arts or Social Science will not be considered.  Supported activities may include but is not limited to:

• mining of large textual datasets, morphological analysis, manipulations, and transformations;
• analysis of geographical information systems data, maps, etc.
• computationally demanding visualization, modeling, and pattern recognition and analysis.
• cross disciplinary studies that require collaboration between computer scientists, scientists, social scientists, humanities and arts that require high performance compute assets.

Award Information:
Winners will be given computing accounts and allotments with participating H-SRC partners; allotments may range from 25,000 to 500,000 CPU hours. H-SRC partners will also provide technical assistance and advice on projects and will help to identify other collaborators if requested to work with the selected projects.  Flexibility in start dates will be determined by the availability of resources and project schedules.   At the conclusion of the initial award period, successful projects will have the opportunity to apply for renewal of their computational allocations for an additional year.

Cost Sharing: No cost sharing is required.

Eligibility:
The project welcomes any scholar or group whose research may benefit from becoming computationally intensive.

Application and Submission Information:
Application Advice
Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are encouraged to consult with I-CHASS staff on the scope of the project, the computational readiness of their data and software, content, and other programmatic matters to ensure the appropriateness of the proposal.  Applicants should clearly state necessary software packages, computational approach, parallel performance data, I/O requirements, mass storage needs, technical assistance needed, etc.  Importantly, however, I-CHASS staff will assist those who need guidance in understanding and addressing these needs.

In addition to CPU intensive activities, scholars who are interested in working on smaller projects that hold promise for growing in scale may also apply to take advantage of hardware, consulting and technical resources needed to conduct research and studies can seek advice from H-SRC staff as to the feasibility of their scholarly goals and objectives.

Application Components

Project Overview (1000 word limit): The project overview section identifies the Principal Investigator(s) and summarizes the project, clearly explaining the project’s importance, its principal activities, and its expected results. Provide the title of your project and list proposed starting and ending dates for your project.

Project Description (3000 word limit): Limit the narrative to four single-sided and single-spaced pages. All pages should have one-inch margins and the font size should be no smaller than eleven point. Please use appendices to provide supplementary material.  These four pages must include:

• Significance:  Discuss the project’s intended audience, its potential impact on research/teaching/learning, and the ultimate audience that will benefit. Describe the degree to which this project will build on past work or break new ground.

• Data Needs:  Thoroughly describe the data needs of the project including a brief explanation and justification for those requests. Be sure to notate the data/networking needs and space needed for data storage. Also, please outline requests for training and/or consultative services.

• Computational Needs:  Describe the computational needs of the project including a brief explanation and justification for those requests. Please outline requests for training and/or consultative services.

• Software Needs:  Thoroughly describe the software needs of the project including a brief explanation and justification for those requests. Be sure to notate requests for training and/or consultative services. Please include any appropriate “alternates” for required software packages in case the specific software you need is not available at any of the computational providers.

• Visualization Needs: Please provide details of any specific visualization capabilities your project will require.

• Database Needs:  Please provide details of any specific database capabilities your project will require.

• Connectivity Infrastructure Needs:  Please provide details of any specific needs for connectivity, such as band width, delays, jitter, etc. (applicable only for RedCLARA member organizations).

• Work Plan:  Provide a plan of work that specifies project tasks and milestones in the use of computational tools.

• Technical Assistance Required:  Provide a list that specifies any special technical assistance you will require to complete your work.

• Previous Funding:  List any other advanced computing support currently being used or planned for the project and delineate any previous funding for computational resources.

• Impact and Evaluation:  Discuss the project’s expected results, their impact on humanities, arts, and social science scholarship, and any plans for wider dissemination. Describe any plans, including listservs and web sites, to facilitate discussion and collaboration among participants and indicate how the project and its results will be evaluated by participants and by the applicant organization.

• Participants and Consultants:  Using short paragraphs, identify participants and describe their roles, responsibilities, and qualifications. Include in the appendix up-to-date letters of commitment and brief resumes (two pages).

Application Review:
Applications will be reviewed using the following evaluation criteria:

1. Impact: the project’s intellectual significance and its furtherance, research/teaching/learning.

2. Collaboration:  the project team’s ability to collaborate among disciplines and team member skill sets.

3. Appropriateness of computational and technological needs: the appropriateness of the project and the extent to which the requirements of the project fit with the resources available for conducting the research outlined.

4. Project value: the value of the expected project outcomes for the research questions posed.

5. Project team’s experience and ability to complete work proposed.

Review and Selection Process:

Applications will be reviewed by scholars, technical experts and OAS/ARTCA/RedClara/I-CHASS qualified staff, as well as a project review committee made up of leaders in the technology and humanities, arts, and social science and science domains drawn from institutions from throughout the Americas who will make recommendations to the Director and Executive Director of I-CHASS based on the criteria listed above.

Award Administration Information:

Award Notices
Applicants will be notified by e-mail and project directors of successful applications will receive award documents by mail after said notification.

Reporting Requirements
A schedule of report due dates will be included with the award document. A quarterly report charting project progress and computational use will be required and a final performance report will be mandatory at a year-end event highlighting project results.

Administrative Requirements
Prior to submitting a proposal, project directors must review the following responsibilities to determine if their project is able to comply with these requirements.

Recipients are required to:

1. provide complete documentation on all project participants to the Project Management Team prior to beginning the award period.

2. carry out project activities in accordance with the work plan provided in the approved application, and ensure that changes in the plan are approved by the Project Management Team in advance.

3. maintain adequate documentation of the time spent by all project personnel on project activities

4. acknowledge H-SRC and hemispheric institutional support in all materials publicizing or resulting from project activities including publications that result from the project.

5. submit performance reports and computational use reports as required by the terms and conditions of the award

6. comply with all H-SRC and participating institutions’ Technology usage and Security policies and procedures. These are available by request.

7. prepare one scholarly publication and one more popularly written publication reporting results and findings.

Points of Contact

Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1205 W. Clark St., MC-257
Urbana, IL 61801

217-333-4327
Fax: 217-244-9757

Project Co-Chair, Alan Craig
acraig@ncsa.uiuc.edu

Project Co-Chair, Fernando Hernandez
fhernan@illinois.edu

Technical Consultations, Alan Craig
acraig@ncsa.uiuc.edu

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