CCS Support Mechanisms

All faculty and students at Tulane University are permitted access to the computational resources at the Center for Computational Sciences with the following queue structure in increasing order of permission (and responsibility):

Q1: The use of available resources with the lowest priority. This queue is available to all members of the Tulane community for research purposes only.

Q2: A higher priority queue that is available to members of the Tulane community who provide intellectually to the leadership of the CCS. This form of leadership can include giving (or arranging) seminars, serving on CCS committees or other similar activities.

Q3: This queue is reserved for faculty and their student colleagues who provide financially to the CCS through direct support from individual grants for personnel, computer purchases and maintenance, or the purchase of software and its associated maintenance costs. Examples of this type of support are provided below.

Q4: This is the highest-priority queue for shared resources, and it is reserved for the faculty and students who are completing CCS-funded projects.

Examples of support
The following is a list of possible support mechanisms for the CCS from individual-investigator or CCS-based research grants. This is not an exclusive list, and we encourage other avenues of support.

Computer support: The CCS will administer server-level computers for research purposes that are purchased from research grants. The purchaser will be provided with a special queue available only to the PIs and their research collaborators + Q3 for all other CPUs. The fee for this service is (n% of computer purchase or $m) annually. These funds may be derived from direct costs on a grant or departmental cost-share.

Post-doc support: The CCS will provide space, workstations and administrative resources for post-doctoral researchers located in the CCS who work on collaborative projects. The post-doctoral researcher funded from individual (or non-CCS) research grants will also receive the highest priority (Q4) for all CPUs. In order for these facilities to be available a sum equivalent to 50% of full indirect costs for the post-doctoral researcher's salary should be provided. This can be provided through direct costs or departmental cost-share.

CCS-based proposals: CCS-based proposals are our highest priority, and will receive full administrative support during the development and funding cycle. These proposals are expected to provide funding equivalent to 10% indirect cost relief to the CCS, and support a portion of the staff salary. The % support for staff should be approximately 25% of all personnel expenses.

Staff Support: An investigator can receive Q3 status by providing partial salary support for the administrative staff. To receive Q3 status, the investigator should provide $m annually.