NSF awards nearly $16 million in MRI grants for HPC in 2018

From our archive. Figures and deadlines reflect the original publish date.

Advanced Clustering Technologies tracks awards made by the National Science Foundation every year, because some of the Major Research Instrumentation grants are awarded to customers for the acquisition of high performance computing hardware. 2018 was an unusual year for MRI grants for HPC.

“We have seen an increase in allocations for HPC from the NSF, not just in terms of the number of MRI grants but also in terms of the overall amount being awarded to the institutions,” said Wade Sisson, marketing director for Advanced Clustering Technologies. “Nearly $16 million has been awarded to 19 institutions specifically for HPC equipment purchases. Compare that with 2017, when we saw 17 institutions awarded $10.9 million.”

The MRI grant is one way that universities find funding for large-scale HPC systems. Proposals for the grant are due in January, and award decisions are usually announced in August, September and October.

“This year the MRI award announcements came earlier than we’ve seen in recent years,” Sisson said. “Typically, we see the bulk of these grant award announcements in September and October. Last year the vast majority of awards were announced in October, but for 2018 more than half of the awards were announced in August.”

White papers offer best practices for your grant proposal and RFP

Advanced Clustering Technologies has been assisting customers in their pursuit of MRI grant funding for many years. “For many years our support came primarily from consultations and detailed equipment quotes, but by 2015 we realized that we had heard do’s and don’ts from enough customers that it might be time to write a white paper about the grant writing process.”

Based on interviews with customers who have won MRI grants, the grant writing white paper offers tips for all phases of the grant application process. “There are commonalities to successful grant applications, and we felt it was important to share those best practice approaches with future grant applicants,” Sisson said.

“We realized that getting the grant funding is only half the battle,” Sisson said. “Many of our customers said the process of writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is as challenging, if not more so, than winning the grant funding in the first place.”

Most university purchasing departments do not have much experience with the complexities of HPC equipment purchases. “It’s not like you’re buying a TV,” Sisson said. “You’re buying a system that can include an endless stream of components, and each system is different. We have found that most grant winners are essentially starting from scratch. There often is no template or sense of where to begin.”

The RFP writing white paper is also based on interviews with customers who have successfully completed the RFP process to spend their grant award on HPC equipment.

Get the grant writing and RFP white papers →