ICHEC, the Irish centre for High-Performance Computing, announced today, Monday, 23rd March, that it will expedite access for all scientific and academic research relating to Covid-19 on the national high-performance computer (HPC), “KAY”. Researchers with approved projects will be given fast-track access to HPC.
J.C.Desplat, Director of ICHEC said;
“Research at the molecular level and the epidemiological level which contributes to understanding this virus, developing vaccines against it, or understanding how it spreads, are vital to support the national effort to combat Covid-19. HPC offers researchers the ability to test models at speeds traditional computing methods are incapable of.
ICHEC will ensure all Covid-19 related research is prioritised on Kay. This includes fast-track access, prioritised compute jobs and code optimisation support on one of the most powerful computers in Ireland.
The international HPC community is united in offering support for Covid-19 research. In Europe, PRACE, the Partnership for Advanced Computing, of which Ireland is a member, is also supporting scientists to combat Covid-19 through priority access to HPC resources. A similar move was also announced by the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore.
ICHEC will consider all research providing it has either been peer-reviewed via a funding body (e.g. the Health Research Board or the European Commission) or, can demonstrate it is an existing activity approved or in collaboration with a government agency for example the HSE, for Covid-19 related work. ICHEC will provide up to one million core hours and one terabyte of storage for each approved project.
Scientists and researchers interested in accessing HPC should contact urgent-computing@ichec.ie at ICHEC for details.
About ICHEC
ICHEC, the Irish Centre for High-End Computing, delivers complex compute solutions to Irish HEAs, Enterprises and the Public Sector.
ICHEC supports the third-level research community in breakthrough and transformative coding through its expertise in code optimisation, AI, Machine Learning, data science and quantum technologies.
ICHEC operates the national HPC infrastructure and enables researchers to bring new solutions to the complex social challenges of today. It provides essential data analysis to public sector bodies and supports SMEs through optimising their data challenges.
Established by NUI, Galway in 2005 ICHEC’s core funding is provided by the Departments of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) and Department of Education and Skills (DES). ICHEC is Ireland’s lead authority in HPC at national and international level and manages the national HPC infrastructure, Kay.
ICHEC has supported over 2,000 research projects to-date many of which have been commercialised.
