IBM has joined as one of the cloud resource providers of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) the Critical Techniques, Technologies, and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (Big Data) programme solicitation for the fiscal year 2018, NSF stated in a release.
IBM joins Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure in providing cloud credits/resources to qualifying NSF-funded projects, thereby supporting researchers in their big data research and education activities, especially those focusing on large-scale experimentation and scalability studies, says a NSF release.
Following the introduction and success of the cloud option last year, CISE issued a call to encourage participation by all cloud providers.
Proposals submitted to the NSF Big Data programme that request cloud credits / resources must adhere to a maximum 70-30 split between the requested NSF funds and the requested cloud resources, respectively, and must not request less than $100,000 for cloud resources.
Proposers interested in using IBM cloud resources may use the information on the webpage 'https://www.ibm.com/cloud/pricing' to develop the total cost of cloud resources along with an annual usage plan over the duration of their projects. Corresponding information for the other cloud providers is provided in the Big Data programme solicitation.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent US federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year 2018, its budget is $7.8 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.