Allocation Process and Projects

To get a standard project allocated to you, you need to apply for an allocation using the Allocations | New Request-form available from your Nectar dashboard. Once approved you will be informed by email and you will be the project manager of your new project.

Eligibility

To be eligible for an allocation you need to fulfil the criteria set out in Research Cloud National Allocation Scheme (RC-NAS) policy - section 7.1 & provide this information (e.g a particular grant or affiliation) in the allocation form. If you don’t have a suitable grant or support, then you may still be allocated cloud resources at the discretion of your local Nectar node. (This applies to people at Universities and other organisations that have a formal arrangement with one of the Nectar Nodes.)

Service Unit Budget

You need to request a Service Unit Budget in your allocation request form if you are requesting compute resources, for the length of your allocation period. All new projects from 31st May 2022 will need to do this. For projects approved prior to this time on a limit quota, future amendments or extensions will need to be submitted with a service unit budget request. For more information on service units and guidance on how to calculate a Service Unit Budget, view the article here. You can track your service unit usage from the Usage menu in the dashboard graphs on the Dashboard, learn more here.

For large requests or requests for advanced or scarce resources, you will be expected to provide a technical justification. If you’re not completely sure just yet, then that’s okay. You will be able to request amendments to your project. We will describe the amendment process below.

More information can be found in the Allocations section of our knowledge base. This includes the current Research Cloud National Allocation Scheme (RC-NAS) Policy.

Allocation requester and project manager

The user that requests an allocation/project will automatically become both a Member and the Project Manager of that project when it is approved.

Project managers have access to a few functions that ordinary project members don’t have:

• User management
• Project listed in My Requests, Amend/Extend ability
• Allocation and Expiry process communications

Occasionally you will come across the terms tenant (or tenancy) and tenant-manager. These are alternative terms for project and project manager respectively.