Getting access and collaborating with the North-West Grid
NW-GRID encourages use of its facilities for both academic and commercial research.
Academic Projects
An academic project wishing to make use of the NW-GRID facilities will be asked to provide a lightweight case. This case will be reviewed by the NW-GRID Technical Board. The board will determine access on the basis of the contribution the project makes to the NW-GRID deliverables. A template form for a case can be found as a Word doc here.
Completed cases should be sent to Rob Allan, e-mail: robert.allan@stfc.ac.uk, at STFC Daresbury Laboratory in the first instance.
Commercial/ Industrial Projects
The North West Grid welcomes use of its facilities by commercial/ industrial partners. We are able to offer a range of different services, from the provision of core hours, use of our codes, to intensive research and code development collaborations. For more information or to discuss your requirements, please contact John Bankcroft email: john.bancroft@stfc.ac.uk at STFC Daresbury Laboratory, or phone 01925 603148.
UK Academic User Registration
An approved project can start registering project team members as users.
A pre-requisite for registration as a North West Grid user is a valid UK e-Science Certificate. More information can be found at the Certfication Authority. When in possession of an e-Science Certificate, please complete our on-line Application Form.
NW-GRID Virtual Organisations
NW-GRID is now managing a VO via the NGS VOMS service, see nw-grid.ac.uk. Subject to accepting the usage conditions below and the NGS Acceptable Usage Policy, users may apply to be a member of one of the groups of this VO. Groups can be set up for projects wanting their users to access the clusters via pool accounts. For more information please contact Rob Allan, e-mail: robert.allan@stfc.ac.uk, at STFC Daresbury Laboratory.
Members of certain other VOs will be accepted on NW-GRID clusters under our partnership with the NGS.
STFC staff having a FedId can now also log on directly to the Daresbury SUN cluster, see here.
Non-UK Users
Please contact the PI of the project you will be working on.
Usage Conditions
For conditions of use, which assume the JANET academic network usage conditions see here.
NW-GRID Portal
To encourage collaboration and sharing of information NW-GRID uses a portal based on the Sakai framework. Go to the Portal or contact Rob Allan e-mail: robert.allan@stfc.ac.uk at STFC Daresbury Laboratory.
The North West Grid is encouraging Grid Usage
To encourage the uptake of Grid Computing and in particular the use of the North West Grid and the National Grid Service, we will consider applications access for training and trial purposes from prospective users. Please feel free to apply for access. We have some training material on-line.