Beating Coronavirus: IIT Delhi Invites Proposals For Using Its Supercomputer Facility For Covid-19 Research

Giving a boost to nation’s fight against novel coronavirus pandemic, IIT-Delhi has invited proposals from around the country for usage of its supercomputer resource ‘PADUM’ for Covid-19 research, reports Hindustan Times.

In a statement, IIT Delhi clarified that a total of Rs 1 crore worth of computational time will be provided to merit-based proposals for free. However, each proposal will have a maximum cap of Rs 10 lakh worth of computational resource.

This allocation of supercomputer resource will be made for three months and it is for this purpose proposals have been invited from the government and the private academic institutions as well as private firms in association with an academic partner from all over the country.

The statement further reads that the allocation period can be extended to six months after evaluating the performance of the projects.

“In these difficult times, the sharing of resources is important in order to address the infrastructure requirements of researchers working on the coronavirus. IIT-Delhi has taken a principled stand and wishes to set an example for this. It is important for scientists to collaborate with each other given the urgency of the situation,” Prof V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT-Delhi was quoted as saying as per the report.

The last date for submission of the proposals is 15 April, after which a team of experts from IIT Delhi would evaluate them on the first come first serve basis.

However, it should be noted that all researchers from India have also been allowed to use supercomputer facility at the institute for covid-19 research on payment basis and for this purpose the institute has allocated a budget of Rs 5 crore worth of high-performance computational resource (supercomputer) for the next six months.