Allocation classes

The NeSI access policy, agreed by representatives of the Crown and NeSI's partner institutions, establishes several allocation classes. In general terms, the allocation class granted to your project is used to decide who pays for that aspect of your project's consumption of NeSI services.

Proposal Development A short-term allocation available to researchers from any New Zealand research institution. During this allocation you will: Find out whether your software works on one of the NeSI platforms. See how your software scales when you run it on more processors. Start estimating how many core hours per year you will need for your project. Once your Proposal Development allocation is well underway (or has ended), you are welcome to apply for a further allocation, which will be granted from one of our other allocation classes. Depending on your institutional affiliation and your project's satisfaction of eligibility criteria, your project's initial allocation may have the same limits as a Proposal Development allocation but be from one of our other allocation classes.	Allocations Granted:	Any time
	Allocation Period:	Up to 6 months
	Maximum Allocation:	2,000 Mahuika compute units per month 40 Māui node hours per month Online storage dependent on availability Nearline storage dependent on availability
	Priority:	Moderate
Merit Intended for highly skilled research teams carrying out high quality research funded via a peer review process that supports the New Zealand Government's Science Goals. A named investigator on a peer reviewed research grant or contract covering the entire allocation period. Students under the supervision of a named investigator are eligible at NeSI's discretion. If your institution is a NeSI Collaborator, your project's allocation, if approved, will be provided out of your institution's entitlement. Examples likely to qualify: MBIE managed research funds Health Research Council funding Royal Society of New Zealand funding, e.g. Marsden grants SSIF programme funding (previously known as CRI Core funding) Research programmes forming part of a National Science Challenge Research programmes forming part of a Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) Those engaged in privately funded research or research funded by a foreign government are unlikely to qualify.	Allocations Granted:	Quarterly   A new project's initial allocation may be awarded from this class at any time, but subject to the limits of Proposal Development allocations.
	Allocation Period:	Up to 12 months, renewable indefinitely (subject to continued eligibility and approval)
	Maximum Allocation:	1,000,000 Mahuika compute units 25,000 Māui node hours Online storage dependent on availability Nearline storage dependent on availability
	Priority:	Highest
Postgraduate Standard allocation for anyone enrolled at a New Zealand degree-granting institution and working on a postgraduate research programme (e.g. PhD or Masters by research) approved by that institution. If your institution is a NeSI Collaborator, your project's allocation, if approved, will be provided out of your institution's entitlement. Applicants in undergraduate programmes (including Honours programmes) or graduate programmes based on coursework are not eligible for Postgraduate allocations.	Allocations Granted:	Quarterly   A new project's initial allocation may be awarded from this class at any time, but subject to the limits of Proposal Development allocations.
	Allocation Period:	Up to 12 months, renewable indefinitely (subject to continued eligibility and approval)
	Maximum Allocation:	500,000 Mahuika compute units 12,500 Māui node hours Online storage dependent on availability Nearline storage dependent on availability
		Low
Institutional Available if you work for or study at one of the institutions that is a NeSI collaborator, or has a subscription to the relevant NeSI service. Warning If you are employed by and/or study at multiple institutions, it is your responsibility to find out which of those institutions is supporting your proposed work with NeSI. Whether and how your research is eligible to receive allocations of NeSI resources depends on its host institution. Allocations from an institution's entitlement are subject to approval by that institution. Some institutions require pre-approval or recover costs for their NeSI usage through internal charging. If you are applying in your capacity as a staff member or student at a NeSI collaborator, your project will be considered for an Institutional allocation rather than a Merit or Postgraduate allocation.	Allocations Granted:	Any time   A new project's initial allocation may be awarded from this class, but subject to the limits of Proposal Development allocations.
	Allocation Period:	Up to 12 months, renewable indefinitely (subject to continued eligibility and approval)
	Maximum Allocation:	Dependent on availability, institutional entitlements and institutional resource allocation decisions
	Priority:	High

If you only qualify for a Proposal Development allocation right now, please Contact our Support Team before applying for a new project. Our Engagement Team is happy to talk to you and representatives of your institution about Subscription options. It's best to start talking to us early as Subscription contracts can take a while to set up.

Our team is happy to answer any questions you may have throughout the application process.

For more information, see how we review applications.