Project Leader Handbook

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On this page, you find information about your responsibilities and tasks as Project Leader/Principal Investigator or Executive Office (XO).

The Project Leader`s responsibility

Your main tasks as a Project Leader is applying for resources, managing allocations, managing user access to the project, and acknowledging the use of resources in publications.

Click on the steps below to read more about the Project leader's responsibilities. The list is organised logically from the perspective of a new project. If you've just been assigned a new project, we recommend proceeding through the steps in the order presented.


1. Description of roles

The Project Leader/Principal Investigator can appoint Executive Officers (XO) to the project. This can help streamline project management and user access control.

Send an email to contact@sigma2.no, include the project number in your email, and provide the full name of the person you would like to add or remove as an XO.

The Executive Officer (XO) role acts a an Assistant Project Leader. The XO can confirm user applications and manage users access.

You find more information about user access below.


2. Apply for resources

It is the responsibility of the Project Leader/Principal Investigator to apply for resources. The resouces are granted on a period basis for 6 months at a team, and announced through regular calls.

All you need to know about applying for resources

Note that you are required to submit an application for each period you need resources.

Multiperiod applications

On the quota page of our resource administration system, you can specify your needs for multiple upcoming periods and thus submit a multi-period application. This will be included and processed during each respective call. Please note that you must confirm the application before each deadline, at which point you can update your needs if necessary. You will receive email notifications about this well in advance.

Multi-period applications that are left unconfirmed will not be processed.


3. Manage user access

As a Project Leader/Principal Investigator or XO, you have the authority to grant access to your project on our infrastructure. Colleagues, both internal and external, are welcome to join, regardless of whether they are based in Norway or other countries.

If the individual already has a user account on our infrastructure, you can directly add them via our resource administration system.

More information about how to manage user access

The Project Leader needs a user account

Project Leaders do not automatically receive an account when applying for and receiving projects. If you plan to use the resources yourself, you also need to have a user account and manage your own access through our resource administration system.

Furthermore, projects are not set up on the systems until at least one user has been granted access.

More information about how to apply for a user account


4. Handle over-usage or under-usage of resource

We acknowledge that accurately estimating the required resources can present a challenge.

Over-usage

There may be instances where the allocated resources prove insufficient. In such cases, we provide the option to apply for additional quota during an ongoing period.

You are only required to specify the additional resources needed (not the total quota) and provide a brief explanation of the requirements. We typically process these applications within one to two working days.

Lower priority

Please be aware that additional quotas on the HPC facilities are assigned a lower priority in the queue system.

Under-usage

There may be instances where changes in project activity result in an inability to utilise all allocated resources within the current period.

To assist us with forecasting, booking, and allocations, we kindly request that you inform us at contact@sigma2.no if you anticipate an unused quota.

Please include details about the project and the amount of quota that can be reduced, enabling us to reallocate these resources to other projects.

Note that new applications are evaluated based on usage. Ensure to include information in the application form about under-usage when applying for the next period.


5. Acknowledgement of use

Projects must acknowledge using the national e-infrastructure resources in all dissemination and scientific publications.

Any papers, presentations, or other publications that feature work facilitated by Sigma2 should include this acknowledgement or citation.

This also applies to popular science dissemination.

Instructions on how to acknowledge the use


6. Tag publications in Cristin

Projects granted access to the national e-infrastructure facilities are obligated to provide a list of any publications resulting from the utilisation of these resources.

New projects are exempt from this requirement until they have completed six periods of use (equivalent to three years).

Continued access to the resources necessitates at least one publication within the last 6 periods.

Co-authors

Please be aware that co-authors are also able to tag publications. If none of the project members have access to Cristin, kindly contact us for assistance.

Tagged publications from Cristin are retrieved by our administrative system on a nightly basis.

Instructions on how report usage through Cristin


7. Project decommissioning

To ensure optimal use of the e-infrastructure resources, projects without an active allocation are subject to decommissioning.

You must read our data decommissioning policies to understand the handling of any remaining data on the infrastructure following the completion of the project.


If you have any questions not addressed in this guide, please feel free to reach out at contact@sigma2.no.