Applying for resources

CSC projects within the scope of our free-of-charge use policy can apply for additional resources (billing units and quota increases). Exceptions to this are Student and Course projects, which have a fixed BU amount (100k BU) and duration (max 6 months).

Billing units

To apply for more billing units, please fill out an application form in the My CSC portal. Detailed instructions are available in Docs CSC.

The required amount 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 for increasing quotas depends on the service. For instance, you may have to contact CSC Service Desk or modify the quota in your project configuration in My CSC. Please note that not all set quotas can be increased. You can find more information on which quotas can be increased and how on the Managing service quotas page.

When applications are reviewed

You can submit your application in My CSC 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 are categorized into small, medium, and large resources.

Small resource applications

The following would be considered small resources:

• S size billing unit packages (100 000 BUs or less)
• Small data storage (disk quota) increases for Puhti and Mahti:
  • < 100 GiB space in ProjAppl
  • < 0.5 million files in ProjAppl
  • < 20 TiB space in Scratch
  • < 5 million 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 within a few days 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 million files in ProjAppl
  • 20–100 TiB space in Scratch
  • 5–10 million files in Scratch

While applications for smaller amounts of resources are processed immediately or within a few days, large resource requests are reviewed every three weeks by CSC’s Resource Allocation Group. Please find the current application deadlines at the top of this page.

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. The Resource Allocation Group reports to CSC’s Board of Directors and the Ministry of Education the allocated resources once a year.

The CSC Resource Allocation Group consists of a chairman, specialists in various disciplines, and persons responsible for the preparation of resource allocations. The specialists are nominated based on their scientific and technological expertise and experience. The resource applications will be accompanied by an advisory opinion from CSC’s other specialists when needed.

Right to appeal

If the researcher is not satisfied with how their application has been handled, the researcher has the right to appeal to the CSC Resource Allocation Group by contacting CSC Service Desk. The CSC Resource Allocation Group will handle any requests and either correct the mistake or give a response. If the researcher is unsatisfied with this response, the researcher then has the right of appeal to CSC’s Board of Directors.