Review Process
Overview
Applications for resources on ICHEC systems go through a three stage review process:
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Technical Evaluation
All applications are subject to a Technical Evaluation by an ICHEC Computational Scientist. This process assesses the technical feasibility of the proposed work, examining ares such as: the adequacy of the approach for the target computing architecture; the availibility of resources such as software packages and libraries; the characteristics of typical jobs that will be run. Crucially the technical evaluation will indicate whether sufficient justification has been provided for the requested resources. Potential conflicts with ICHEC scheduling policies will also be examined.
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Science Council
After completion of a Technical Evaluation, Class A and Class B applications are subject to independent peer review by the ICHEC Science Council. This body is entirely independent of ICHEC and is made up of representatives from it's participating institutions. It decides whether applications will be accepted or rejected by ICHEC. The Technical Evaluation report is made available to the Science Council to assist them in their review. In addition if an applicant has previously submitted an application then details of the application(s) are made available. If the applicant has (co-)authored publications which ICHEC is aware of that acknowledge use of ICHEC resources, then details of these publications are also made available to the Council.
The level of scientific scrutiny depends on the class of application. Class A applications must provide a detailed case clearly establishing the "Grand Challenge" nature of the work. They are expected to lead to high impact publications and as such must be supported by a strong scientific case. Class B applications are subject to less stringent review but must still satisfy the reviewers that the work described is of sufficient quality to lead to refereed publications. Both Class A and Class B applications will have two independent reviewers, with one being based outside Ireland in the case of Class A.
Class C projects are not subject to review to the Science Council as they are not expected to generate publications.
To faciliate the avoidance of conflicts of interest, at the time of application an applicant may indicate that they wish to have potential reviewers excluded from the review process. For Class A applications three individuals may be named and for Class B applications one individual may be named. Such a request along with a justification should be forwarded to the Science Council chair care of ICHEC.
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Resource Allocation
Once a project has been accepted by the Science Council final resource allocations are made. In the case where a Class A National Capability Service project (i.e. access to the Blue Gene systems) has been accepted, no resource allocations are made as PIs have unlimited CPU resources on the Blue Gene systems.
Sample Project Proposal
The following is a sample project proposal taken from real, successful/approved projects that have been peer-reviewed by the Science Council:
NOTE: All project proposals submitted to ICHEC (apart from the project abstract, which we do publish) are treated as strictly confidential. We have obtained explicit authorisation from the respective author(s) to publish the proposal listed above.