The University of Wollongong offers Partner Share access to Australia’s fastest supercomputer, Gadi, as part of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) Collaboration Agreement.
Research computing and systems
There are three schemes available to UOW researchers (staff and HDR students).
- UOW Partner Share. In conjunction with our partner, NCI, UOW is granted an annual allocation of compute time and storage on Gadi. This serves as the university’s computational cluster and is managed by the RSO on behalf of the HPC Steering Committee.
UOW researchers are also encouraged to apply for competitive time on NCI resources:
- Adapter. This is offered quarterly for a maximum of 250KSU per quarter. (Temporarily discontinued 2024)
- NCMAS. This is offered once a year – deadline is generally at the beginning of October. There is a minimum of 1000KSU per year available.
Access the UOW High Performance Computing Resource Allocation Guidelines for the NCI Partner Share.
Detailed information is found in the below knowledge base article (for UOW staff and students only).
KB: High-Performance Computing (HPC) Information and Support
Access and support
For new and existing projects
- Applications are welcome, and are governed by the UOW HPC Steering Committee.
- Requests for access are initially reviewed by the HPC Steering Committee Chair and the Research Services Office
- They are endorsed by the full HPC Steering Committee at meetings throughout the year
- Proposed projects must be led by an established academic staff member (post-doc equivalent or higher)
Getting Started on Gadi
Before getting started on the Gadi supercomputer, you must create an RDMP for your project on RedBox. (If you do not need to store any data, you may skip this step but note we will need to see your RDMP before you are allocated any storage in the future).
Once you have an RDMP, the next steps are:
- Register for an NCI user account
- Propose a New Project or Connect to an Existing Project (we will ask for the RedBox project number before approving your application).
Project roles and researcher eligibility
Upon registration, the following eligibility guidelines apply:
The roles detailed below should be read in conjunction with the role definitions listed at: NCI Definitions: Commonly Used Terms
Lead CI
- Must be fixed term or continuing staff member
- Can only have one project (For academics supervising multiple HDR students, one project can be shared among them)
- Should be the HDR supervisor of the HDR students listed in the roles of “Researcher”/”Delegated Lead CI”/”Chief Investigator”
Delegated Lead CI
- Can be an HDR student or fixed term or continuing staff member
- Make this the HDR student if the Lead CI does not access the project on Gadi regularly
Chief Investigator (CI) and Researcher
- Can be HDR student, fixed term or continuing staff member or honorary/visiting fellow or casual staff member
NCI provides some useful documentation about working in the Gadi environment – some links to note include:
- Job Submission (noting the queue limits)
- Software
- Storage and Data Management
- NCI Support (best option for Gadi-specific/compute jobs questions)
- User Training
UOW Partner Share compute and storage requests
Q4 2025 - 25 September 2025
Q1 2026 - 15 January 2026
Q2 2026 - 25 March 2026
Q3 2026 – 25 June 2026
NCI NCMAS Scheme
Important Dates for NCMAS 2026
- 8 October: Applications OPEN
- 13 October: UOW Zoom information session. Register now
- 20 October: Submit your draft application for internal review to hpc_admin@uow.edu.au
- 31 October: Applications CLOSE (8 pm AEDT/5 pm AWST).
- 11-12 December: NCMAS Scientific Advisory Committee meeting for allocations.
- 6 January: NCMAS 2026 Allocations announced
Visit National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme 2026 to access detailed information and submit your application online.
Operational HPC support requests (e.g. queue issues, compilation failures, application/library installation requests etc.) are processed by our support partner, NCI.
- Raise support requests via the NCI Support Portal - access to this portal requires an NCI account
- View NCI account registration process
- For any questions not related to operational support, please email hpc_admin@uow.edu.au
- Become familiar with the Technical specifications for NCI Gadi
Artwork
Gadi
"to search for" in Ngunnawal language, January 2020 for NCI Gadi Supercomputer
Artist
Lynnice Letty Church
Tribes
Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri & Kamilaroi (ACT and NSW)