Collaborative Computational Projects: Networking and Core Support

Collaborative Computational Projects: Networking

and Core Support

Call type: Invitation for proposals Closing date: 16:00 07 October 2014

Related themes: Engineering, ICT, Mathematical sciences, Physical sciences, Research infrastructure

Summary

In both the recently published EPSRC E-infrastructure roadmap and the EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy the importance of software development and the need to invest in people and training in this area has been strongly highlighted.

Collaborative Computational Projects (CCPs) bring together the major UK groups in a given field of computational research to tackle large-scale scientific software development projects, maintenance, distribution, training and user support. They play an important role in EPSRC’s ongoing ability to deliver its Software as an Infrastructure strategy and as community based networks and projects they provide a focal point for communities to identify their scientific software

requirements and take a strategic approach to software support in a particular field.

Subject to quality, up to £2M of funding and 15 FTEs per annum of technical computational support from staff at STFC’s Scientific Computing Department is available to support new and existing Collaborative Computational Projects (CCPs) that underpin research and research communities within the EPSRC remit.

The focus of this call is to provide funding for CCPs to perform networking and widening participation activities and to allow CCPs to apply for core support provided through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that EPSRC holds with STFC. The deadline for submission of proposals is 16:00 on 07 October 2014.

Background

Collaborative Computational Projects (CCPs) aim to exploit research investment by encouraging widespread use of the software in the long term. CCPs are

inclusive, community wide activities that bring together the major UK groups in a given field of computational research to tackle large-scale scientific software development projects, maintenance, distribution, training and user support. Hundreds of UK groups participate in the CCPs, and with extensive international and industrial links they are needed to ensure that the UK stays at the forefront of computational science and engineering, providing a focal point for

strategic approach to software support in a particular field. As such CCPs play an important role in the EPSRC’s ability to continue to deliver its Software as an Infrastructure Strategy.

EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy:

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/pubs/software-as-an-infrastructure/

In the past CCPs have included support for the following activities:

• Networking activities: Important underpinning activity encouraging national and international collaboration and community building, capturing community requirements and developing a strategic approach to software support in a particular field.

• Widening Participation: Impact activities aimed at widening the CCP’s reach through international, cross-disciplinary and industrial outreach. • Core support: Scientific, technical and administrative support by staff at

STFC’s Scientific Computing Department, funded through a Service Level Agreement with EPSRC.

• Flagship software development projects: New, innovative and

challenging software development projects that are strongly aligned with the interests and strategic requirements of the research community. Subsequent to a mid-term review of the current portfolio of EPSRC supported CCPs, changes to the ways that CCPs will be funded have been made.

CCPs will now be supported through two parallel mechanisms:

• CCP: Networking and Core Support: This current call will support the networking, widening participation and core support activities carried out by the CCPs. This call will be open to both existing and new CCPs within the EPSRC remit. Flagship software development projects will NOT be supported through this call, although the core support work may include support for on-going software development and maintenance. • Software Development Calls: Existing CCPs will be invited to submit

new, innovative and challenging Flagship software development projects to the regular software development calls run by the Research Infrastructure team at EPSRC. Flagship projects will be assessed through robust peer review and tensioned against other software development proposals. A further software development call is planned for 2015/16. For further information on EPSRC supported CCPs please follow the link below:

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/ourportfolio/themes/researchinfrastructure/sub themes/einfrastructure/software/ccprojects/

For a full list of CCPs please follow the link below:

http://www.ccp.ac.uk/

Aims and Scope

Through this call EPSRC will look to fund a portfolio of CCPs that aligns with the EPSRC Shaping Capability Strategy and continues to support a thriving

• Build communities of researchers and developers around topics in

computational science and engineering research. This could be based on community codes with large numbers of users, or on providing a focus for software development and code rationalisation in a particular area of science and engineering.

• Provide training in computational science generally, and for specific software packages, thereby broadening the user base of computational techniques.

• Build the capability to deliver high quality and important research through the development of sustainable and robust software.

• Bring experimentalists and computational scientists and engineers together.

• Enable and promote collaboration with industry, other research domains (for example other CCPs), and international colleagues.

• Support innovation, best practice and sustainability in software development, maintenance, distribution and exploitation.

The scope of this call is to provide funding for new and existing CCPs, which underpin research and research communities within the EPSRC remit. Proposals focused on research and research communities outside of the EPSRC remit will not be accepted.

The focus of this call is to provide funding for CCPs to perform networking and widening participation activities and to allow CCPs to apply for core support that is delivered through the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that EPSRC holds with STFC’s Scientific Computing Department.

Flagship software development projects will NOT be supported through this call.

Funding available

Up to £2M of funding and 15 FTEs per annum of core support is available through this call. EPSRC expects to support approximately 7-10 CCPs.

CCPs funded through this call must support research and research communities within the EPSRC’s remit and should be no longer than 5 years in duration. As these are community centric projects only one CCP in each broad area will be supported.

Two types of support are available through this call: • Networking and Widening Participation Activities • Core Support

Networking and Widening Participation Activities

Maintaining and distributing code, training, and sharing best practice are

important aspects of the networking activities performed by the CCPs along with capturing community requirements and developing a vision and future strategy for supporting the research base.

Activities undertaken by CCPs should be outward looking, leading to a wide user base. CCPs should aim to reach out to all potential users in the relevant

international collaboration is appropriate for them and the benefits that may result from working with other CCPs.

Requests for funding may include:

• Investigator salaries: Principle investigators / CCP Chairs can

request funds to cover their salary costs for the time spent setting up, managing and co-ordinating the CCP. Requests can be made for Co-Investigator time, however this should be restricted to individuals that are heavily involved in the management and co-ordination of the CCP networking activities. Time spent by the PI and Co-Is on the

co-ordination of the CCP should be reasonable and is not expected to form the majority of the cost of the proposal. Salary costs of CCP

participants should NOT be included in the proposal.

• Administrative support: Funding for administrative support can be requested to help in the co-ordination of the network. Costs should be reasonable and normally form a small part of the request for funding. Administrative support can also be provided by STFC through the core support.

• Workshop and meeting costs: Including funding for CCP workshops and events, working group meetings, cross-CCP activities and

community training.

• Travel and subsistence: Including support of international activities and exchanges.

• Dissemination and communication activities: Including web-based dissemination and impact activities such as collecting and publishing case studies.

• Industrial outreach: Including short-term pilot projects and secondments.

Core Support

Core support through the Service Level Agreement that EPSRC holds with STFC’s Scientific Computing Department can be applied for as part of this call. Support available includes:

• Development and maintenance of community software including

development and implementation of theory and algorithms, distribution and license management.

• Expert technical advice.

• Training in computational methods and specific software packages. • Support for networking activities.

• Administrative back-up.

Further information on this is available in Annex 1.

Applicants MUST discuss their requirements for core support with STFC before applying for this call. These discussions should cover both the proposed work

that would be undertaken through the core support and the type of support that would be required to deliver this.

Contact details for STFC are provided at the end of this document.

It is not necessary to enter the level of core support requested on the proposal form as there is no proposal cost associated with the core support.

However the level and type of support requested should be clearly stated in the Case for Support along with information on the proposed work that will be undertaken. Any requested core support should be clearly aligned with the scientific needs and interests of the research community. The level of core support requested should also be clearly stated and justified in the Justification of Resources.

Applicants should bear in mind that a total of approximately 15 FTEs per annum of core support is available.

Work plan prioritisation

Applicants are requested to consider and include information on what CCP activities would be prioritised if a lower than requested level of grant funding or core support was available.

This prioritisation of activities should be addressed at the end of the Case for Support and clearly stated and explained in the justification of resources. The diagrammatic work plan should also show which activities would be prioritised in a lower funding scenario.

This information will be used if it is necessary to negotiate levels of resources provided to any of the CCPs, taking into account the available budget, core support and the panel ranking and recommendations.

Start Dates

For existing CCPs, grants awarded from this call may not start until after the end date of any EPSRC funded networking activities. The proposed start date should be after the existing project’s end date.

Core support from STFC already allocated from April 2014 – March 2015 will not be affected by the outcome of this call. Core support applied for as part of this call will be taken into account when planning the allocation of core support from April 2015 onwards.

Equipment

No single items of equipment costing over £10,000 (inc. VAT) in total will be supported as part of this call. Equipment under £10,000 should be applied for under Other Directly Incurred costs as usual.

For more information on equipment funding, please

see: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/ourportfolio/themes/researchinfrastructur e/subthemes/equipment/.

Eligibility

CCPs funded through this call must support research and research

communities within the EPSRC’s remit. Proposals focused on research and research communities outside of the EPSRC remit will not be accepted. This call is open to UK academics whose research falls within the remit of EPSRC. For information on the eligibility of organisations and individuals to receive

EPSRC funding, see the EPSRC Funding

Guide: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/howtoapply/fundingguide/

As this call is a targeted funding opportunity provided by EPSRC, higher education institutions, and some research council institutes and independent research organisations are eligible to apply. A list of eligible organisations to apply to EPSRC is provided at:

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/funding/eligibilityforrcs/

How to apply

Submitting application

You should prepare and submit your proposal using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/).

When adding a new proposal, you should select: • Council ‘EPSRC’

• Document type ‘Standard Proposal’ • Scheme ‘Standard’

• On the Project Details page you should select the ‘CCP Networking Call’ call.

Note that clicking ‘submit document’ on your proposal form in Je-S initially submits the proposal to your host organisation’s administration, not to EPSRC. Please allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the call closing date. EPSRC must receive your application by 16:00 on 07 October 2014.

For multi-institutional bids, applicants MUST submit their application on a single Je-S form.

Guidance on the types of support that may be sought and advice on the completion of the research proposal forms are given on the EPSRC website (http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/howtoapply/) which should be consulted when preparing all proposals.

Guidance on writing application

If the attachments are uploaded as Word documents, please be aware that once the application has been submitted to the Council/Funder, all the attachments will be converted and held as an Adobe Acrobat file (PDF). Also please note, that whilst we support a wide range, we do not support all MS Word font types.

Therefore if an unsupported font type is used a different font type may be substituted which may result in changes to the layout of the document. For this reason we recommend that the documents are converted to PDF files before uploading.

For advice on writing proposals see:

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/howtoapply/preparing/

Case for support (up to 8 sides of A4)

• Track Record (up to two sides of A4): The track record should provide a one paragraph summary of the scientific area covered by the proposed CCP and a brief summary of any past or existing funding that the CCP has received.

A track record of the project team should be included indicating their skills and expertise in software development, their experience and standing in the research domain that the CCP is in and their experience in

co-ordinating and managing networking and community based activities. Information on key research groups that have been involved in the development of the proposal can also be included in the track record.

• Description of proposed CCP and its context (up to six sides of A4): The case for support should include a more detailed description of the scope of the CCP and its scientific remit:

• If the proposal is for a new CCP, please explain why a CCP in this area is now required.

• If the proposal is for an existing CCP, please explain the continued requirement for this CCP.

An explanation of the national importance of the proposed CCP and how it aligns to EPSRC priorities should also be included in this section.

Information on EPSRC’s portfolio and Shaping Capability strategy can be found here: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/ourportfolio/

The case for support should also include the following information: • Aims and objectives

• Networking and Widening Participation: Programme of work for the networking and widening participation activities including plans for broad community engagement and dissemination of the work performed by the CCP.

• Core support: Work plan for the core support.

• Justification: Details of why each type of support is required. • Management: Explanation of the role that the CCP Chair, other

investigators, the CCP Working Group and any advisory bodies will have during the course of the project.

• Critical success factors: Suggested critical success factors against which the CCP activities can be assessed in future

• Work plan prioritisation: At the end of the case for support, information on what CCP activities would be prioritised if a lower

level of grant funding or core support was available should be presented. An explanation of why these activities are high priority should be included.

Pathways to impact document (up to two sides of A4)

•

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/ke/impacts/

• EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy: The pathways to impact document should include information on how the proposal

addresses the strategic goals in the EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy.

•

Pathways to Impact document. Information on groups and individuals who have either been consulted during the writing of the bid, or who have agreed to participate in CCP activities can also be included here.

• Software Sustainability: A specific section of the pathways to impact document should be dedicated to detailing the proposed management plan of any software outputs (including documentation and other related

material) that will be produced by the CCP. This should include information on who is responsible for releasing the software, the revision control

process to be used, the licensing of outputs and information on the use of resources such as CCPForge through the Software Engineering Support Centre (see Annex 1).

Justification of the resources requested (up to two sides of A4) • All resources requested must be fully justified, including the level of

requested core support.

• Information and costs associated with the “Work plan prioritisation” should be included at the end of the justification of resources.

Work plan (up to one side of A4)

• The diagrammatic work plan should clearly show which activities would be prioritised in a lower funding scenario.

CVs (up to two sides of A4 each)

• For named post-doctoral researchers, visiting researchers and researcher co-investigators, where applicable. No CVs will be accepted for PI and Co-Is.

Statements of support from any project partners (no page limit) • Letters of support from all project partners should be included as an

attachment. Letters of support

• A letter of support from STFC should be submitted where core support from the SLA has been requested. This letter should outline the

discussions that the CCP has had with STFC and include details of the nature of the core support required, with information on what would be prioritised in a lower funding scenario.

• No other letters of support will be accepted unless there is a direct and clear monetary or in kind contribution to a specific aspect of the proposal from an organisation that cannot be listed as a project partner.

Additional documentation will not be accepted after the deadline. Please note that proposals not accompanied by the correct documentation will be rejected.

Assessment

Assessment process

EPSRC reserves the right to sift proposals at any stage to ensure all proposals fit the call.

The full proposals will be assessed and prioritised for funding by a peer review panel. Proposals will not be sent for reviewers’ comments.

Assessment criteria

The proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Fit to the scope of the call and how the proposal addresses the call’s aims. • Quality of the science and engineering that will be underpinned and

enabled by the CCP.

• Importance of the science and engineering that will be underpinned and enabled by the CCP and how this links to the EPSRC Shaping Capability strategy.

• Quality of the proposed networking, widening participation and core support activities, how this aligns with community requirements, and suitability of the proposed critical success factors.

• Impact, including alignment to the EPSRC’s Software as an Infrastructure strategy and assessment of the software management plans.

• Strength and appropriateness of the team, including the applicants’ track record and ability to deliver the proposed work.

• Resources and management, including the proposed work plan.

Additional information

EPSRC reserves the right to review the CCPs half way through their award. Successful CCPs will be expected to participate in the CCP Steering Panel run by STFC and provide regular input to the Service Level Agreement Steering

Committee managed by EPSRC.

Key dates

Activity Date

Call opens in Je-S 05 June 2014

Call closes in Je-S 16:00, 07 October 2014

Panel Meeting November / December

2014

Funding Decisions December 2014/

Contacts

Requests for help and advice concerning the writing and costing of your proposal should be addressed to your institutional Research Office in the first instance. If you have any questions about preparing and submitting your proposal using Je-S, please contact the Je-S helpdesk ([email protected], 01793 444164). For other queries not addressed in the call document please contact:

Dr Iain Larmour

Portfolio Manager, Research Infrastructure Telephone: 01793 44 4073

Dr Daniel Emmerson

Portfolio Manager, Research Infrastructure Telephone: 01793 44 4112

Or via e-mail at: [email protected]

For discussion on STFC Scientific Computing Department core support for CCPs, please contact:

Paul Sherwood: [email protected]

The Software Engineering Support Centre, at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, can provide advice on the use of CCPForge and also on best practice in good quality software development and software engineering. For discussion, please contact:

Christopher Greenough: [email protected]

Change log

Name Date Version Change

Annex 1:

Core Support from STFC’s Scientific Computing

Department

The Scientific Computing Department (SCD) of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) provides computational science support for the scientific community, including the CCPs.

Core Support

Core support is provided by staff at the Daresbury and Rutherford Appleton Laboratories under a Service Level Agreement with EPSRC. The nature of the support provided differs depending on the needs of the project. New projects will be able to make use of some, or all, of the main types of support described below:

• Development of theory, algorithms, and software: This is a key element of support for many current projects, resulting in long-term, continued expansion and updating of the software programs. It may include the consolidation of existing codes into a more sustainable community software package.

• Maintenance, distribution, license management, dissemination and demonstration of software

• User support and training: This includes individual support and training

as well as help to organise events such as summer schools and study weekends, and contribute to the teaching and preparation of training materials.

• Collaboration on scientific projects: This is often offered to the CCP

community members who are not experts in the specific computational methods or software.

• Porting, optimisation, and benchmarking for HPC and new

architectures: The core support benefit from access to the wide range of cutting-edge computer architectures present in SCD.

• Management of scientific data: This includes activities such as, for example, the development of visualisation and workflow management tools, database and archiving, and verification and validation activities.

• Co-ordination and networking support: Assist the CCP Chair with planning and reporting of the project, and provide administrative support for community activities such as scientific and executive meetings and visitor programmes. Support is also available for project websites. The core support team are embedded in the Department and can access specialist expertise in the relevant fields of computer science such as software engineering, data management, visualisation, etc. Two specific activities are summarised here:

The Software Engineering Support Centre (SESC)

The centre provides support for improving the software engineering practices for research software funded by the UK Research Councils. Software repositories are provided through the CCPForge service and infrastructure for automated

software testing is being developed. The centre also provides information on best practice through a programme of:

• Seminars - to introduce SESC and explain the benefits of software engineering.

• Workshops - to give developers hands on experience with tools and techniques.

• HowTo Guides - available from the documentation section of the web site http://www.softeng-support.ac.uk/

The Software Outlook Programme

This activity is funded as part of the STFC/EPSRC SLA and deals with novel and emerging HPC technologies that underpin software development in other parts of the programme. This includes evaluation of new programming techniques that are essential for the timely and cost-effective exploitation of current and near-future systems and demonstrating how specific software technologies can be applied to existing applications. Examples of activities include shared memory approaches, scalable parallel I/O techniques, debugging techniques and hybrid MPI/Open-MP implementation.

Contact

For discussion and further information, please contact Paul Sherwood [email protected].