All user accounts on ALICE must be associated with an approved HPC Research Project. A Research Project may be a larger research programme or cover a research group within, or across, departments. Anyone can request to register a project, though usually it would be requested by somebody in a supervisory role. The project doesn't need to be linked to specific research grants. 

Users are associated with projects for several reasons:

• so that we have an idea of what sort of research the service is being used for
• so that we can track funding sources, where they exist, for the research being carried out
• provide a structure for allowing data to be shared between collaborating users
  
• managing data for users when they leave the University or stop working on a particular project
  

Please note that in this context Research Projects are just a means for us to group users together.

Requests for new user accounts can come directly from the PI or one of the Project's designated alternative PIs. A user can request an account for him or herself, but must specify which HPC Research Project(s) the account should be associated with; approval will then be sought from the appropriate PI(s).

Registering a Research Project

Go to the Self Service portal then follow the link to the online self service portal at the top of the page.

• click the Create Service Request button from the left-hand side of the page
• click on the I need to link
  
• select the Register a research project for access to the central HPC cluster from the drop-down list.
  
• Follow the instructions provided, and please specify at least one alternative PI if possible. This will allow us to get approval for new user accounts more quickly should the PI be away.

We ask for details of a project's funding body in order to have an idea of who funds research that makes use of ALICE. This information is not used in the approval process but is key to developing a business case for long term continuation of the service.

A name for the project and a short description are also required.

Once submitted, the project request will be considered by the HPC Management Board. This is typically a formality, and approval should be granted within 2-3 days.

Project PIs and their alternative PIs will automatically get an account on ALICE when their project is approved.

Research Projects will be assigned a unique Unix group on ALICE. All associated accounts of a project will have this as a secondary group.

A list of existing projects can be found on the current research projects page.

Requesting a New User Account

You can contact the Service Desk directly to request a new ALICE account, or use the Self Service portal and submit the required details yourself. Within the Self Service portal,

• first click the Create Service Request button at the left of the page
• in the subsequent page, click the I need to link
  
• in the next window, select the Request for new user account(s) on HPC cluster service line. Click OK - the window will close and instructions will appear in the original web page. Enter the details as requested on the page and submit the request.

Once the request is submitted, approval will be sought from the PI, and as soon as your account is created you will receive an email notification.

Acknowledging use of ALICE

All publications resulting from use of ALICE should include the acknowledgement:

This research used the ALICE High Performance Computing Facility at the University of Leicester.