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Version: FINAL 

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COVID-19 Update

  • Current ACT 7-day lockdown starting on Thursday .
  • ACT lockdown conditions will relax from Friday  , with most restrictions easing on  .
  • NCI staff will continue to working from home until further notice. Return to campus plan in discussion, possible 2022 Q1-Q2.
  • NCI buildings on ANU campus are physically accessible to only 3-4 essential staff during lockdown. All others are locked out, i.e. no access to offices, workstations.
  • The NCI Help Desk phone (02 6125 3437) will not be staffed during this lockdown period. Please contact user support by email: help@nci.org.au and provide contact details if a phone or zoom discussion is required for a support matter.

NCMAS 2022 call for applications

  • Applications closed  
  • NCMAS 2022 resource shares
    1. Pawsey/Setonix: Two components, 100 MSU (confirmed for calendar year 2022) and 155 MSU (pro-rata). 
    2. NCI/Gadi:  280 MSU
    3. MASSIVE/M3: 2.5 MSU, specialised call for neuroscience/neuroimaging, structural biology/CryoEM, machine learning.
  • Anonymised proposal process, as for 2021 call.
  • Weekly information sessions were well attended.
  • Administrative, A3P and technical assessments currently in progress. Merit assessments open ~  .
  • 225 applications received. 
  • 3 administrative disqualifications, as compared to 6-8 in previous calls.

ANUMAS 2022 call for applications

  • Call opened  ; application deadline is Monday  .
  • Open to ANU researchers.
  • ANU Startup projects should apply only if they requested supplemental allocations in 2021, or if they seek more than 100 KSU for 2021.

Quarterly scheduled maintenance

  • Q4 maintenance  completed according to plan.
  • Next scheduled maintenance  (TBC).

NCI cloud

  • Cloud v3 available late-November or December. 
  • Additional hardware scheduled for integration 2022 Q2.
  • Integrated accounting: January 2022.

NCI staffing 

  • NCI Business Manager: Donna Chan
  • Functional email address for NCI business matters – business.manager.nci@anu.edu.au .
  • Two new staff members onboard in Storage and Infrastructure group. 
  • Training Officer onboard in Training group.
  • Applications closed  for new Associate Director and Deputy Director positions. Shortlisting in progress.

NCI Board update

Allocation policies 

  • NCI encourages overallocation of resource shares by ~5% to maximise value.
  • If your overall compute consumption is estimated to exceed your resource entitlement, NCI will contact you to confirm handling of supplemental allocation requests. 
  • Used compute allocations are not refundable, per standard agreements, terms and conditions. 

Flexible resource allocation model

  • Initial presentation by Allan Williams, Associate Director, Services and Technologies
  • Drafts of reference documentation are now available for download from the May meeting page, Scheme Manager Update - May 2021.
  • Supporting documentation has been relocated to a more centrally-accessible, standalone documentation page, Flexible Resource Allocations.
  • Initial implementation planned for 2021 Q4. Implementation requires integration across Gadi, cloud, virtual services, and storage.
  • Deployment impacted by COVID-19 lockdown.

MyNCI – user accounts and projects

  • Some profile attributes will become mandatory. Expected to take effect in 2021 Q3-Q4.
  • Update to institution/org attributes. Primarily affects ANU users.
  • NCI to review account management processes for compliance with Privacy Act (Cth), and Australian Privacy Principles.
  • The Lead CI on a project is responsible for managing project personnel. NCI strongly recommends that a Lead CI should reject any project membership requests from any person who do not have a known and legitimate connection to a project. Approving a project membership requests from an unknown person is a potential security risk to your project.

NCI Training

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