These projects are meant for work on codes and algorithms.

Projects of more than 10'000 node hours are granted based on scientific merit and technical feasibility. Development Projects of less than 10'000 node hours on the HPE Cray EX  Supercomputer will be admitted based on technical evaluation only.

Development projects on systems other than Alps Grace-Hopper will be discussed case by case.

If you wish to submit a Large Development Project Proposal you need to provide the following documents (in PDF format):

• Your development project proposal, including all the mandatory items listed below
• Your curriculum vitae
• Your list of publications  

The  portal for the proposal submission is : projectoffice.cscs.ch

The next deadline for submission of production proposals is Monday May 18, 2026 at 17 CEST for the allocation starting on October 1, 2026!

***Please note that the submission portal closes at 17:00 CEST. After this time, it will no longer be possible to submit a proposal.***

If you wish to submit a Small Development Project Proposal please submit your proposal together with the CV and the publication list (all in pdf format) on the web portal projectoffice.cscs.ch

Small Development Project Proposal can also be submitted at any time and are not restricted by any deadline.

Proposers must hold at least the position of postdoctoral position at an academic institution. Only professors can apply for multi-year projects.

PhD students cannot apply independently and must submit proposals in consultation with, and under the auspices of, their supervisor. In such cases the supervisor must be identified as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project.

International applications will be accepted only if proposers and their teams are affiliated with academic institutions and use of GPUs is clearly proved and supported by all appropriate technical data. 

The same proposer cannot submit more than 1 development proposal per year.

Double-awarding is not permitted. Applicants must submit original proposals that have not been submitted and/or funded in any other HPC/AI programs.

Proposers whose project proposals are approved must hold an academic position for the full duration of the project. CSCS reserves the right to close the project otherwise.

Large projects (> 10'000 and < 250'000 node hours per year, up to 2 years)

The project proposal must conform to these requirements:

• Length: no longer than10 A4 pages including graphs and references
• Font:  Arial or Times New Roman and font size 11 using single line spacing
• Margins: at least 2.54 cm in all directions. These requirements apply to all sections of the proposal

And it must contain the following information:

• Intended applications: Outline of background and significance
• Intended applications: Scientific goals and objectives
• Description of research methods and algorithm development
• Outline of development
  • Current status of software, benchmarks and scaling
  • Algorithms and implementation (clear description of the algorithm development is required)
  • Programming and parallelization approach
  • Project plans: tasks and milestones
• Resource justification
• Infrastructural requirements (type of hardware, debuggers, etc.)
• Duration of the project (up to 2 years only)

The ML vCluster is available only for proposals that are not covered by the Swiss AI Inititative.

Multi-year Submissions :

• Multi-year project proposals must include a research plan that justifies the multi-year request and two clearly defined milestones for each requested year. These milestones will be reviewed at the time of each renewal.

The requested allocation must be specified per year; that is, you must provide the total number of node hours required for one year of your project.

Please note that the absence of any mandatory component may result in the rejection of the proposal.

Large development projects (> 10'000 and < 250'000 node hours)

The review process is structured as follows:

• Complete proposals will be subjected to a technical feasibility assessment
• Complete proposals will be subjected to scientific review, carried out by reviewers from an international pool
• Based on the technical and scientific reviews, a panel committee of scientific experts will rate the projects and make a final allocation recommendation

Applicants do not receive intermediate feedbacks. Communication will only happen within 2-3 weeks from the SAC meeting.

There are two allocation periods for Production Projects and Large Development Projects on CSCS HPC systems starting on: April 1st and October 1st.

Deadlines »

Please click here » for information on the renewal report.

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