What are DAC, MRAC, and LRAC TeraGrid allocations?

All researchers are encouraged to consider using the TeraGrid. For eligibility requirements, see Who is eligible to apply for a TeraGrid allocation?

Types of TeraGrid allocations

The following TeraGrid allocations categories are available:

• Development grant: The Development Allocations Committee (DAC) awards 0-30,000 service units (SUs). Requests are reviewed and awarded continuously throughout the year (i.e., DAC awards do not have fixed submission deadlines or start dates). These are small awards that are targeted at new users and those investigating new architectures. Development grants allow you to explore TeraGrid resources, develop your code, and produce benchmarks or other well-founded arguments that will help you write a good proposal for a production grant (defined below). If you are a new TeraGrid user, you are encouraged to begin with a DAC proposal.
  
  
• Production grant: Typically users request a production grant when they know precisely the TeraGrid resources required for a research or teaching project. Two types of production grant are available:
  
  
  • Medium Resource Allocations Committee (MRAC): The MRAC awards 0-500,000 SUs. Requests are reviewed and awarded four times a year. Proposals are generally due in January, April, July, and October. These are medium-sized awards appropriate for users with prior experience working on the TeraGrid and mature computational projects requiring moderate amounts of computing time.
    
    
  • Large Resource Allocations Committee (LRAC): The LRAC makes awards larger than 500,000 SUs. Requests are reviewed and awarded twice per year. Proposals are generally due in January and July. These are large awards for users with very extensive computational requirements.

  A successful production grant proposal (MRAC, LRAC) requires a detailed justification of resource usage.

For instructions on how to apply for a development grant, see How do I apply for a TeraGrid allocation? For information about applying for a production grant, see About applying for a large TeraGrid allocation (more than 30,000 CPU hours or 5TB of data storage).

This document was developed with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 0503697 to the University of Chicago and subcontracted to Indiana University. Additional support was provided by IU through its participation in the TeraGrid, which is supported by the NSF under Grants No. 0833618, SCI451237, SCI535258, and SCI504075. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

Also see:

• What is the TeraGrid, and how can I get started using it?