Membership Policy

1. Background

The planning process for HPCVL since late in 1997 has always involved some sort of charging algorithm, user fee structure or access fee. At Queen's University, for example, researchers were polled in late 1997 on their willingness to pay a fee from their research grants to help with the purchase and upkeep of a computer to replace the existing IBM SP2. Since that time, the formation of HPCVL and its efforts to access government funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the various Ontario funding bodies, and NSERC, have led to a number of discussions regarding the perception of value of these proposed facilities to the researchers at member institutions, other institutions and industry.

During these discussions, it was recognized that member institutions comprising HPCVL were putting significant resources into, not only the application process, but also into the actual operating budget as cash and in-kind. It was also recognized that HPCVL would have to make 20% of its CFI funded facilities available to researchers outside of HPCVL. Given that researchers at other Universities were mentioned in our applications as potential users of the proposed facilities, it is assumed that sharing HPCVL resources fairly should play a role in formulating this policy. In addition, CFI regulations governing HPC awards state that external users cannot be charged more than internal users (as part of the 20% availability commitment).

HPCVL has stated in its grant applications that a small access fee would be collected and help cover a portion of our operating expenses. For budgeting purposes, this fee would form a portion of the each member institution's contributions (for internal users).

2. Membership Categories

2.1 General Principles
Membership in HPCVL is open to all researchers at member institutions and to selected researchers from across Canada. In all its funding applications, HPCVL has stated that the facilities would be used by researchers from member institutions and selected researchers from other institutions from across Canada.

Five categories of membership were created to respond to the various needs of academic and industrial users. A General Institutional Membership category that would fit researchers in general was in order. Recognizing that some researchers may require larger resource access than others, HPCVL established an Enhanced Membership category. For example, researchers requiring 60 CPUs to be dedicated to their work for a short period of time or at a higher priority as the work may be under some time constraint would pay a higher access fee. Recognizing that some institutional researchers also perform contract research that may require high priority access to large resources not covered by the previous categories, a Contractual Research Institutional Membership category was established. A Private Sector Membership category will allow HPCVL to attract companies interested in utilizing HPCVL facilities. Finally, to promote membership, HPCVL recognizes that a short trial period may be granted to potential new members under the Provisional Membership category.

2.2.1General Institutional Membership:
The General Institutional Membership category is primarily aimed at an institutional member supporting a relatively small team of graduate students, post-docs, and research associates using the HPCVL facilities.

• The PI of a research group is the only person to pay an access fee. Members of that researcher group (graduate students, post-docs, research associates, and staff) are covered by that one fee.

• Researchers collaborating on projects are not included in that same research group whether they are present at that institution or elsewhere.

2.2.2Services
A general membership includes the following services:

• Unlimited low priority access to HPCVL facilities under general resource sharing principles such as batch queue streams (see the usage policy).

• Access to basic porting, coding, and support help.

• Access to software licensed to HPCVL under academic terms for generic research only.

• This extends to each member of the research group.

2.2.3 Access Fee

• The General Institutional Membership falls into Category I (see the Access Fee Schedule).

• Limitations on the number of active user accounts and allocated resources may apply for general member. A PI with a large team will be required to join HPCVL as an Enhanced Institutional member.

2.3.1 Enhanced Institutional Membership
The Enhanced Institutional Membership category is primarily aimed at PIs with large teams and/or large resource requirements.

• The PI of a research group is the only person to pay an access fee. Members of that researcher group (graduate students, post-docs, research associates, and staff) are covered by that one fee.

• Researchers collaborating on projects are not included in that same research group whether they are present at that institution or elsewhere.

2.3.2 Services
An enhanced membership includes the following services:

• Unlimited mid-priority access to the HPCVL facilities under general resource sharing principles such as batch queue streams (see the draft usage policy).

• Access to porting, coding, and support help.

• Access to software licensed to HPCVL under academic terms for generic research only.

• This extends to each member of the research group.

2.3.3 Access Fee

• The Enhanced Institutional Membership falls into Category II (see the Access Fee Schedule).

• Some researchers may require on occasion for their generic research a large allocation of resources with a high priority above the usual level covered by the Enhanced membership category. Payment of an extra fee may need to be negotiated based on the expected resource usage.

2.4.1 Contractual Research Institutional Membership
The Contractual Research Institutional Membership category is aimed at institutional researchers performing contract research. This category will be negotiated on a case by case basis for more flexibility (cf. Category III of the Access Fee Schedule).

2.5.1 Private Sector Membership

This membership category is aimed at companies interested in purchasing access to the HPCVL facilities. Due to the nature of private sector needs, this category has to be negotiated on a case by case basis (cf. Category IV of the Access Fee Schedule).

2.6.1 Provisional Membership

This membership category is aimed at potential new members desiring a short trial period before they join HPCVL. The provisional membership is left to the discretion of the Executive Director, upon the availability of resources.

3. Responsibilities of Members
Each user/member will agree to follow and abide by the HPCVL Usage and Security policies and practices, as well as, any other policies established by the HPCVL Board of Trustees. It is emphasized that:

• The member recognizes that generic grant-supported research and contractual research must be done under distinct membership categories. A researcher performing both types of research must join the appropriate membership categories.

• In accordance with the rules stated in the Usage Policy document, it is understood that prior to a large resource allocation, the member will have made all the necessary efforts to optimize and parallelize their codes.

The need to meet funding agency reporting requirements that can withstand an actual audit means that:

• Each institutional user/member will have to report the time spent on a particular project involving HPCVL. At the end of each reporting period, each member (PI) must ensure that an accounting report is submitted for each member of their team. Details on how the reports are to be submitted will evolve with the progressive assembly of the HPCVL infrastructure and administration.

4. Membership Administration
Access fees are administered in the following ways:

• Fees are paid on an yearly basis in accordance with the rules of each membership category and as specified in the Access Fee Schedule.

• The fee paid by a member covers the year following the renewal, with fee changes applying only at the time of the renewal unless a member decides to upgrade their membership category.

• A membership category upgrade, for example from General Institutional membership to Enhanced Institutional membership, is paid in proportion of the remaining portion of the year on top of the fee already paid.

• The access fees start to apply at the opening of the member accounts.