OxCIN@BMRC

OxCIN members are entitled to utilise the BioMedical Research Computing (BMRC) team based at the Big Data Institute and Human Genetics buildings.

The BMRC facilities include a multi-thousand core general compute cluster, GPU facilities (both consumer grade and enterprise class) and high-performance multi-petabyte storage platform.

Any project that will be processing sensitive (e.g. identifiable to a living individual) datasets will need to complete a privacy assessment. If your research does not involve human subjects or uses a acceptably anonymised dataset, e.g. the UK BioBank dataset, then you can request an account and begin using the facilities.

Anyone wishing to work the the UK BioBank Imaging dataset will require a BMRC account.

CHARGES​

Accounts at the BMRC do not currently attract direct charges, with access to the BMRC cluster and OxCIN GPU facilities being funded by the OxCIN until end-July 2025, after which time groups will need to negotiate/pay access charges directly to BMRC. From October 2025 we expect BMRC to begin charging research groups an access fee (sub-£1K pa) in addition to their compute and storage charges and to introduce a GPU specific equivalent of the CPU charge.

Cluster compute charges will apply to groups starting in August 2025. This is on the basis of 'shares' with 1 share being roughly equivalent to using 1CPU 24x7 for a calendar year. This currently attracts a fee around £260 per year. From October 2025 we understand that access to GPU hardware will be separated from the CPU shares, consequently a charge will apply if your research requires access to GPU accelerated hardware (e.g deep learning, ProbtrackX, Eddy, BedpostX etc). Please contact BMRC help for advice on the charges that will apply. 

For small groups we expect that a single CPU and GPU share will be adequate unless you have a specific high-compute requirement. We expect that this will cost around £2000 per year (exclusive of storage charges). Larger groups are likely to need more shares, especially if you experience long wait times for jobs.

Working disk space should be rented directly with the BMRC team, at the time of writing this was attracting a charge of £70 per TB per year. Invoices are generated quarterly.

Information governance considerations will require that your request project specific storage folders to allow clean separation of charges and user access control.

​REQUESTIN​​G AN ACCOUNT

To request an account you first need your Principal Investigator (PI) to have registered with the BMRC facility.

If you are the PI then please send an email to the BMRC support address bmrc-help@medsci.ox.ac.uk requesting the creation of a PI group, an account for yourself (if required), that you are a OxCIN researcher and specifying how much storage you would like to rent in the first instance - complete the template email and send on. You should Cc in oxcin-it-managers@ndcn.ox.ac.uk so that we can confirm your affiliation to the BMRC team.

If you are a researcher then please send an email to the BMRC support address bmrc-help@medsci.ox.ac.uk email to the BMRC support address - complete the template email, add your supervisor to the list of Cc's and send on.