The services for High-Performance Computing (HPC), NIRD storage services (NIRD Data Peak and NIRD Data Lake), and Sensitive Data Services are subject to our User Contribution Model.
All institutions, except the BOTT users (see information: Projects from the Bott Universities below), will receive a yearly invoice from Sigma2.
Categories and prices for the HPC and storage services
(See prices for the Sensitive Data Services)
The cost of resources depends on the funding supporting your research project. Projects participating in EU programmes are exempted from contribution, however certain conditions apply for this to be valid. More information about projects participating in EU programmes below.
Find the category your project belongs to below to find the right price for your use.
Category A: Non-commercial projects with allocation from our Resource Allocation Committee (RFK)
This category applies for non-commercial projects with allocation from RFK. Such projects are required to contribute to the operational expenses of the national e-infrastructure services.
Exemption: For smaller projects using less than 200,000 CPU core hours per year, or less than 7 TB storage per year, there is no payment. If any organisation outside BOTT has an aggregated use for smaller projects with a value of more than 50,000 NOK, the organisation is required to contribute, given 6 months' notice, for further future use of the infrastructure. This only applies for organisations that are new users of the national e-infrastructure services.
Use this category in applications to the Norwegian Research Council and other funders, except the EU.
Prices for category A
| Service | Price |
| HPC | 0.05 NOK per CPU-hour |
| Storage | 740 NOK per TB/year |
Please note that the billing for CPU hours depends on the CPU usage recorded in the machine(s) queueing system. In a reservation, the CPU hours are billed based on the reserved time multiplied by the number of reserved cores, regardless of how much the reservation is actually utilised.
GPU usage on LUMI is accounted as GPU hours. One GPU hour on LUMI is invoiced as 16 CPU hours using the rates in the table above. Please refer to our documentation for more details.
Back-up cost per TB is not included in the price.
Category B: Non-commercial projects in need of dedicated resources
This category applies for non-commercial projects in need of dedicated resources, paying for capital and operational expenses.
Prices for category B
| Service | Price |
| HPC | 0.10 NOK per CPU-hour |
| Storage | 1 230 NOK per TB/year |
Please note that the billing for CPU hours depends on the CPU usage recorded in the machine(s) queueing system, except for allocations running in a reservation (Dedicated and Commercial by default). In a reservation, the CPU hours are billed based on the reserved time multiplied by the number of reserved cores, regardless of how much the reservation is actually utilised.
GPU usage on LUMI is accounted as GPU hours. One GPU hour on LUMI is invoiced as 16 CPU hours using the rates in the table above. Please refer to our documentation for more details.
Back-up cost per TB is not included in the price.
Category C: Commercial research and industry
This category applies for commercial and research and industry users paying market price.
Prices for category C
| Service | Price |
| HPC | 0.47 NOK per CPU-hour |
| Storage | 3 398 NOK per TB/year |
Please note that the billing for CPU hours depends on the CPU usage recorded in the machine(s) queueing system, except for allocations running in a reservation (Dedicated and Commercial by default). In a reservation, the CPU hours are billed based on the reserved time multiplied by the number of reserved cores, regardless of how much the reservation is actually utilised.
GPU usage on LUMI is accounted as GPU hours. One GPU hour on LUMI is invoiced as 16 CPU hours using the rates in the table above. Please refer to our documentation for more details.
Back-up cost per TB is not included in the price.
Category D: Applications to the EU, in-kind
This category applies for applications to the EU, as in-kind value.
Prices for category D
| Service | Price |
| HPC | 0.10 NOK per CPU-hour |
| Storage | 1 230 NOK per TB/year |
Please note that the billing for CPU hours depends on the CPU usage recorded in the machine(s) queueing system, except for allocations running in a reservation (Dedicated and Commercial by default). In a reservation, the CPU hours are billed based on the reserved time multiplied by the number of reserved cores, regardless of how much the reservation is actually utilised.
GPU usage on LUMI is accounted as GPU hours. One GPU hour on LUMI is invoiced as 16 CPU hours using the rates in the table above. Please refer to our documentation for more details.
Back-up cost per TB is not included in the price.
Sensitive Data Services prices
The Sensitive Data Service (TSD) has an annual fee, invoiced by the University of Oslo/USIT, which covers two virtual machines, up to 1 TB of storage and backup, and the use of the service Nettskjema.
Additional yearly costs apply for services that are not covered by the yearly fee, such as the use of the HPC cluster, more storage, use of database and use of licensed software not included in the software portfolio. Please note that a potential invoice for extra services like this will come from the University of Oslo/USIT.
Projects supported by Sigma2 for the use of HPC or storage resources will be charged for these services according to the following price list:
(*) If the price model above will give you expenses you consider unreasonable compared to what you have paid before, please contact us at contact@sigma.no.
(**) Non-commercial projects with extraordinary needs, e.g. in terms of certain predictability for allocations within a specific time frame, due to for instance obligations or dependencies for other services.
By applying for TSD resources you accept the prices stated here and you will receive a yearly invoice from Sigma2.
| Research projects with resources granted by RFK (*) | Research projects in need of dedicated resources or with special needs (**) | |
| Yearly fee | 0 | 0 |
| Storage per TB/year | 1 000 NOK | 2 000 NOK |
| Backup per TB/year | 400 NOK | 800 NOK |
| HPC per CPU-hour | 0 | 0.14 NOK |
EU Programmes
Projects participating in EU programmes will continue to be exempted from contributing. For this to be valid, projects participating in EU calls, planning to use the Sigma2 e-infrastructure need to consult with us on resource usage before the application to EU is sent.
Only agreed resource usage will be exempted, and only usage proportionate to the EU funding will be exempted.
To efficiently handle your request, please provide the following information when contacting us:
- What EU programme you will apply to.
- Status on your EU application and when the deadline is.
- The period you need resources from us (from and to year is fine).
- Estimated amount of CPU hours and GPU hours needed per year.
- Estimated amount of storage space per year (in terabytes).
Storage space for projects allocated via DICE is free of charge up to June 2023 thanks to the project funding.
Projects from the BOTT Universities
If your project belongs to one of our partner universities (the "BOTT" Universities):
- The Norwegian Universtiy of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- The University of Bergen
- The University of Oslo
- UiT, The Arctic University,
invoicing will be handled locally at the university. Please contact your institute to get more details regarding this.
In consultation with the Norwegian Research Council, Sigma2 introduced a user contribution model in June 2018.
This aligns the policies for user contribution with other national research infrastructures and increases the funding base for national e-infrastructure.