Research Computing Package

Request computing and data storage at no cost to faculty, staff, and student researchers.

The U-M Research Computing Package (UMRCP) offered by ITS Advanced Research Computing (ARC) enables access to centrally supported high-performance computing clusters and data storage resources for researchers on central and medical campuses.

The Michigan Medicine Research Computing Investments (MMRCI) offered by Michigan Medicine Health Information Technology Services (HITS) further expands upon the UMRCP program for Michigan Medicine researchers. MMRCI offers increased storage limits, increased core hour credits, additional cost sharing on core hours invested, and more!

 

The FY24 investments include:

330K Total CPU Hours of high performance computing 

  • Initial 80K funded by UMRCP, additional 250k funded by Michigan Medicine. 
  • CPU credits are allocated on the Great Lakes cluster or the Armis2 protected data cluster; they can be used for standard, larger memory, or GPU resources.

30 TB Total of replicated, high performance storage 

  • Initial 10TB funded by UMRCP, additional 20TB funded by Michigan Medicine.
  • Capacity can be split across sensitive and non-sensitive science data. The Turbo Storage can be used on many ARC/ITS, unit, Globus.org, and laboratory systems.

No Limit Archive Storage

  • Initial 100TB funded by UMRCP, additional capacity is fully funded by Michigan Medicine.
  • Replicated, durable storage for massive data volumes. The Data Den system also supports reliable data transfer and international data sharing via Globus.org.

32 GB Secure enclave system memory

  • Initial 16GB funded by UMRCP, additional 16GB funded by Michigan Medicine.
  • High-performance, flexible, virtual server environment provisioned for the secure hosting and analysis of restricted research data. The environment is designed to create one or more walled off areas, called enclaves, where researchers' data are segregated from other researcher’s projects in a flexible manner.
  • The environment is suitable for restricted data up to “high” classification, including Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Allocations for coursework (Provided by UMRCP)

  • 1TB of big data can be used by faculty member per course taught 
  • Each course provided a 1 semester plus 2-week allocation of 100 CPU hours per student, to provide students with real-world experiences
  • Idle capacity available to undergraduate students upon approval

Additional Michigan Medicine Savings

In addition to the computing and storage savings offered through the UMRCP and MMRCI, Michigan Medicine is extending further savings to our researchers: 

  • Covering 90 percent of computing costs beyond UMRCP and MMRCI: For those requiring compute time beyond the credit hours offered in UMRCP and MMRCI, Michigan Medicine will further reduce researchers’ costs by covering 90 percent of total high performance computing costs on the shared campus cluster. This is an increase from an 80 percent cost-share budgeted for in fiscal year 2022. No action is needed to take advantage of these savings. Savings will be reflected on your next monthly billing statement.

  • Up to 20TBs of Locker: For implementation of Active Archive with DataDen for research storage needs. 

  • Web application hosting subsidy: For researchers looking to host web applications, Michigan Medicine is offering a subsidy to help cover a majority of the costs to run a web application in our Cloud Kubernetes Hosting Service. In most cases, no additional fees would be incurred for this service, depending upon the size of your web application. To take advantage of these savings, submit a container hosting ticket via the Michigan Medicine Help Center, or contact your Academic IT Liaison.

  • Scientific Cores, Centers, Institutes and Collaboration Groups: Scientific cores, centers, institutes, and collaboration groups in the Medical School can request to receive group service offerings under MMRCI with Research IT Leadership approval. To learn more about the MMRCI group service offerings, request an academic consultation.

Eligibility

UMRCP eligibility 

The U-M Research Computing Package is available to all researchers on all campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint, and Michigan Medicine). For details, visit ARC's website. 

MMRCI eligibility

The Michigan Medicine Research Computing Investment is available to: 

Researchers:

  • Has a home department within Michigan Medicine (50% or greater appointment)
  • Faculty or staff affiliation with an active or pending project grant, or is generating preliminary results for a project grant application
  • Emeritis, adjunct, students and individuals with only a part time appointment are not eligible for the MMRCI

Scientific Cores:

  • A scientific facility that provides a service to Michigan Medicine researchers through a core service, expertise, or piece of equipment
  • Home unit is the Medical School
  • Received formal endorsed by Research IT Leadership for the current fiscal year (required annually)

Interdisciplinary Centers and Institutes:

  • An entity to organize and facilitate research activities
  • Actively supporting one or more sponsored research projects
  • Home unit is the Medical School
  • Received formal endorsed by Research IT Leadership for the current fiscal year (required annually)

Collaboration Groups:

  • A collaborative Michigan Medicine research project involving several researchers requiring centralized project resources
  • Lead researcher’s home department is within Michigan Medicine
  • Received formal endorsed by Research IT Leadership for the current fiscal year (required annually)

Eligible Michigan Medicine Researchers are automatically enrolled in the MMRCI after signing up for the UMRCP.