WIN@BMRC
How to register for accounts and request storage space
WIN IT is currently in the process of moving compute facilities over to services provided by the BioMedical Research Computing (BMRC) team based at the Big Data Institute and Wellcome 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, WIN GPU facilities being funded by the WIN Centre. This arrangement will cease in April 2024 at the end of the Centre grant and fees will apply from that date.
Working disk space should be rented directly with the BMRC team, at the time of writing this was attracting a charge of £60 per TB per year. Invoices are generated biannually.
Information governance considerations will require that your request project specific storage folders to allow clean separation of charges and user access control.
REQUESTING 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 WIN 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 win_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.