Applying for Resources

Those who use CSC's services free-of-charge can apply for additional resources (additional billing units and quota increases) except for Student and Course projects, which have a fixed BU amount (100k BU) and duration (max 6 months).

Please note that the application process below applies only in free-of-charge use cases: if you are a commercial user, please consult our service desk at servicedesk@csc.fi about getting more resources.

How to apply for additional resources

Billing units

To apply for more billing units, fill out an application form on MyCSC portal. See our application instructions.

The need of billing units should be estimated for a period of 3–6 months. The maximum grant is 10 million billing units. You may use the granted resources in all services that consume billing units.

Quota increases

The process of increasing quotas depends on the service. For instance, to apply for a quota increase you may have to contact our service desk or to modify the quota in project configuration on MyCSC. Please note that not all set quotas can be increased. You can find more information on which quotas can be increased and how to apply on the quotas' page.

When applications are reviewed

You can submit your application on MyCSC at any time. However, when your resource application will be reviewed depends on the amount of resources you apply for.

The amount of resources you can apply for can be categorized into small, medium, and large.

Small resource applications

The following would be considered small resources:

• S size billing unit packages (100 000 BUs or less)
• Small data storage quota increases for Puhti and Mahti:
  • < 100 GiB space in ProjAppl
  • < 0.5 mil. files in ProjAppl
  • < 20 TiB space in Scratch
  • < 5 mil. files in Scratch

Small resource applications are processed immediately after submitting an application. Please note, however, that all resource applications are monitored: it is important to fill out your applications carefully.

Medium resource applications

The following would be considered medium resources:

• M size billing unit packages (up to 1 million BUs)
• Allas storage space quota increases up to 50 TiB

Medium resource applications are on average reviewed in a few days' time by a resource application officer.

Large resource applications

The following would be considered large resources:

• L size billing unit packages (1-10 million BUs)
• Access to LUMI in Regular and Development modes
• ePouta Shared Fileservice requests
• Allas storage space quota increases up to 200 TiB
• Large data storage (disk quota) increases for Puhti and Mahti:
  • 100-200 GiB space in ProjAppl
  • 0.5-2 mil. files in ProjAppl
  • 20-100 TiB space in Scratch
  • 5-10 mil. files in Scratch

While applications for smaller amounts of resources are processed immediately or within a few days, large resource requests are reviewed by CSC's Resource Allocation Group (resource@csc.fi).

The applications are reviewed mainly every three weeks. You can find the application deadlines on the top right.

Submitted applications are evaluated based on their scientific effectiveness and quality (e.g. scientific publications). The Resource Allocation Group closely follows the national science policy and the priorities defined by the Finnish government. Computing resources are mainly focused for national research use.

Read more about principles of allocating resources and the right to appeal.