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Proposal Guideline Sections

Sections (within 4-page limit):

  • Background: Section describing how the resources will be used to address the problem (specific models, theory, etc.).
  • Problem Statement: Section describing the desired high-level scientific/engineering outcomes of the project.
  • Methodology: Section describing the computational methodology that will be used. This should include the applications required and specific cluster architecture needs (e.g., GPU, high-memory).
  • Software Characteristics & Benchmarking: Section describing the performance, scaling, and other characteristics of the software application that will be used, ideally based on small-scale test-runs on the resources of interest.
  • Research Schedule & Resource Plan: Section describing the research schedule, including the anticipated expenditure of granted resources (estimation of computational time). Allocations are assumed to be uniformly consumed over their lifetime. If this is not the case, an estimate of expenditure by quarters is strongly recommended.

Sections (Not Subject to the 4-Page Limit):

  • Impacts and Outcomes of Previous Allocations: Describe impacts and outcomes of any previous allocations. Must refer to the required Progress Report (Section 7) if seeking renewal.
  • List of Publications/Reports: List reports, presentations, publications that were enabled by previous allocations.
  • External Funding: Describe or list related external research funding.

Tip

Please bear in mind that the Research Computing Advisory Board (RCAB) is composed of faculty members with a very wide range of scientific backgrounds, and any of them may be assigned to review your proposal. When describing the goals of your research, as well as the tools and approaches you plan to use, write your proposal in such a way that it is informative to people working in the same or related fields, and understandable to a scientifically literate lay reader.