Application for computing time

Scientists with a doctoral degree who belong to a German accredited university are eligible to apply. Within the scope of the approved projects, non-doctoral scientists can also use the computers.

Use of HoreKa is free of charge, however the utilization of HoreKa has to be acknowleged on all publications and annual status reports have to be submitted to the NHR∂KIT.

Please apply for resources for your project via NHR-JARDS. After completing an application via JARDS, the signed application form must be sent to project-review∂nhr.kit.edu.

NHR@KIT offers five categories of projects depending on compute resources needed which implies different call and review types.

Note: We define the ressources that you applied for in your application as "requested CPU" and "requested GPU". However, when we approve your application we grant you the so called "effectively granted CPU" and "effectively granted GPU". The effectively granted CPU = approved CPU + 19 * (approved GPU). So when you request ressources in your application please be aware that you could sometimes be granted more. The reason for this is that every GPU is binded to 19 CPU.  

It can be hard to estimate how many resources (CPU core hours / GPU hours) your project will need. The easiest way to find out is to apply for a NHR test project before handing in the proposal for a NHR normal or large project.

Please keep in mind that individual compute nodes on HoreKa are always assigned to a single job exclusively. Please calculate your resource consumption with 76 CPU cores per node, and not 152 CPU threads per node (see the Project accounting page).

Project implementation is the responsibility of the principal investigator (PI). During the project, the NHR centers will monitor the project utilization data and provide the consumption data to the PI on a regular basis, cf. Project accounting.

NHR Normal projects

Application for normal projects can be done any time of the year (rolling call) and can be submitted on an ongoing basis. Allowed activities prior to the official project start can be found here (exceptions: NHR@Göttingen and NHR@ZIB - please note the deadlines for major projects for all projects).

NHR Large projects

Application for large projects can be only done quarterly and start time is scheduled 3 months after the submission deadline. The current deadline is displayed bold in the following table.

During the application process you are required to upload a detailed project description, for which a template per project category is provided. The usage of the outlined structure given in the template is mandatory. Applications that do not use the required outlined structure given in the templates for the detailed project description might be rejected.

For category: normal and large project

• PDF
• DOCX
• LaTeX

For category: test project

• PDF
• DOCX
• LaTeX

For category: AI Fast Track project

In order to submit a project in this category, you download the template, fill it, then sign it and send it to us by email without applying in the JARDs portal.

• PDF
• DOCX
• LaTeX

Other documents:

• Resources Release
• Access Form

All NHR normal and large project proposals are reviewed by the multi-disciplinary Steering Committee of Baden-Wurttemberg and for large projects additionally by the NHR Steering Committee. Projects are marked as preliminary until the review phase is over. During this time a prinicipal investigator can already add contributors to the project (see the Manage project contributors chapter), and the project members are able to use HoreKa.

While a project is in the reviewing phase (preliminary state), usage is limited to a maximum of 5% of the requested compute hours or 500,000 CPU compute hours (whichever is more). In the rare ccase of a long reviewing phase a higher fraction of the requested computing resources will be granted on an individual base. The full amount of granted resources becomes available as soon as the project will have been approved by the Steering Committee of Baden-Wurttemberg and for NHR large projects also by the NHR Steering Committee.

Should the steering committee decline a project proposal, the associated accounts will lose access to HoreKa and no further computation is possible.

Annual project report

All computing time projects using NHR resources such as HoreKa are required to submit a final or an annual project report once the project is completed or prior the project enddate. Note that the duration of NHR normal and large projects are limited to 12 months. Reports of the last 12 months must be be written as scientific articles and, in addition to the subject-specific results above all include:

1. information about achieved performances on the used computer platforms
2. typical number of processors used
3. degrees of parallelization and vectorization
4. scaling
5. indication of the respective computing times (CPU core and GPU hours) to achieve the results presented
6. total number of core-h consumed during the reporting period.
7. list of publications

Please note that diagrams showing the scalability of your code must be included in the report. Scalability of your code must be included in the report, even if there have been no changes there have been no changes from the previous year.

The report has to be submitted latest 3 months after the project end to project-review∂nhr.kit.edu.

In case of a planned continuation of the project, the project report is part of the application procedure for project extension.

Publications

Please send all papers with the acknowledgments to project-review∂nhr kit edu and list them in the project status report that must be submitted annually by all principal investigators (PIs) or project leaders using HoreKa. At a minimum, the following data must be included:

• DOI
• Author(s)
• Title or book title
• Journal, volume, page or editor, address, publisher
• year.

This information is used for the evaluation of HoreKa. The publications are listed publicly on the NHR@KIT website.

Only NHR normal and large projects can be extended.

• Extensions of up to 25% of the initially granted resources or up to 3 months, do not have to be re-evaluated by the steering committee.

• Extensions of up to more than 25% of the initially granted resources or up to 1 year, have to be fully re-evaluated by the steering committee, thus you need to apply for an application as an extension in JARDS.

The decision on project extension is not based on the general scientific eligibility, but rather on a description of the existing results and details and the further course and work plan/achievements of the project. Renewed proof of scalability is not required for project extension, if the complexity of the project and the numerical methods to be used have not changed.

Application of project extension

Project extensions are manged using JARDS. When preparing the extension application, please fill in the template listed above, specifically section 7.

Papers, presentations, and other publications that contain results generated by computing resources of the NHR Association should include an appropriate acknowledgment. Therefore, please select the appropriate text for your project here!