The FCT has opened applications for the 5th edition of the Advanced Computing Projects Contest (CPCA). This contest aims to provide computational resources to national scientific innovation projects, promoting research in areas of significant impact and relevance. It is organized by FCCN, the digital services of FCT. To assist applicants, an initial online information session will be held on September 24 at 12:00 PM. Interested parties can register through the link: Information Session via Colibri-Zoom.
In addition to applications for accesses A0 and A1, which extend until September 2025, this edition introduces updates for accesses A2 and A3, with two application periods: the first until October 10, 2024, and a second phase in 2025. The first phase, exclusively through a "fast track," is aimed at projects that have been pre-evaluated in previous competitions. More details and criteria on the “fast track” and “full track” can be found in the contest's opening announcement.
In this edition of the CPCA, access will be provided to three major high-performance computing platforms: MareNostrum 5, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and Deucalion, a next-generation Portuguese supercomputer. Both supercomputers are funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), enabling greater scalability and performance across various research and innovation areas. Researchers can also use the HPC and Cloud services of INCD (National Distributed Computing Infrastructure), ideal for projects with flexible storage and computing needs.
The contest will offer more than 560 million CPU core hours. Applications are accepted from all scientific areas that use High Performance Computing (HPC), Computing for Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Scientific Cloud Computing.
All researchers from national institutions, both public and private, can apply for access to computational resources through different access types:
A0 – Experimental Access – for users without prior experience or for small-scale projects, up to 6 months;
A1 – Development Access – for medium-scale projects with more complex computing needs, up to 12 months;
A2 – Regular Access – for large-scale projects for experienced users in HPC, AI, or Cloud, for 12 months;
A3 – Large Access – for large-scale projects with high computational resource consumption, requiring infrastructures like Deucalion or MareNostrum 5, for 12 months.
For more information, it is recommended to visit the information available on the FCT website and consult the page of open contests.
Applications should be submitted on the myFCT Platform. Results will be published following FCT approval, after the closure of each application period.
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