Using Berzelius: Access, Allocation, and Acknowledgement

1. Applying for a Project on Berzelius

SUPR (Swedish User and Project Repository) is the NAISS database used to keep track of persons, projects, project proposals and more. To use most SUPR functions you need to be logged in.

Access to Berzelius compute and storage resources is granted through a project application process. Applications are submitted via SUPR in the “LiU Berzelius” round (Rounds –> AI/ML –> LiU Berzelius).

A step-by-step guide to the application process is available in:

• Swedish
• English

2. Key Application Details

2.1 Eligibility: Who Can Apply?

To be granted resources on Berzelius, both the Principal Investigator (PI) — defined here as the main applicant in SUPR — and the project must meet the following conditions:

• PI education level: The PI must be either a doctoral student or higher.
• PI must be affiliated with one of the following:
  • An academic institution in Sweden
  • A doctoral/postdoctoral program—either regular (university-based) or industrial—affiliated with a Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) strategic initiative
• Project Requirements:
  • The project must involve research intended for publication. Exceptions apply.
  • The project must not process sensitive data.

2.2 Resources on Berzelius

Berzelius offers two types of resources: compute and storage.

• Compute Resources
  • Must be explicitly requested in GPU-hours per month (GPU-h/month).
  • Maximum allowed request: 28,800 GPU-h/month (equivalent to 40 GPUs full-time or 5 DGX-A100 systems).
  • “Small” projects (≤ 240 GPU-h/month) receive a fast-track review with only an initial and technical evaluation, allowing quick access to the system.
• Storage Resources
  • The default allocation is 2,000 GiB and 2 million files.
  • Only non-default storage and file number requests need to be specified.
• Project Duration:
  • Default maximum duration is 6 months.

Note: Doctoral students and postdocs may apply as PIs, but are limited to the default allocation. Larger requests require a more senior researcher to act as PI.

3. Other Important Information

• Abstract visibility: Your application’s Abstract will be publicly visible. Keep confidential or sensitive content in appropriate fields such as Resource Usage or the Data Management Plan.

• Review timeline: Applications are evaluated monthly, except in July (vacation season). There is no fixed deadline.

• Fair-share scheduling: While allocations are tracked, they are not strict caps. Jobs may be delayed during high demand periods if your project is over its fair-share. See Fair-share scheduling for details.

• Remote access and export controls: Berzelius is subject to EU export regulations for dual-use equipment (Regulation No 428/2009), and it falls on the PI to ensure the compliance to this regulation by all project members. Particularly relevant in this context is that using Berzelius from a country outside of the European Union (including EEA and the Swiss Confederation) via a network is considered an export, and this may be prohibited. The list of countries from which network access to Berzelius (directly or indirectly via e.g. VPN) is prohibited can be found at the EU Sanctions Map via “Menu” → “Measures” → “Embargo on dual-use goods”. At the time of writing (2025-04-17), the list consisted of Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, and Russia.
  NB: This export restriction has nothing to do with the affiliations (like citizenship) of the person using Berzelius.

4. Acknowledgement

The recommended way to acknowledge access to Berzelius is:

“The computations/data handling/[SIMILAR] were/was enabled by the Berzelius resource provided by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation at the National Supercomputer Centre.”

If applicable, also add an acknowledgement for application support:

“[NAME] at the National Supercomputer Centre is acknowledged for assistance concerning technical and implementational aspects [OR SIMILAR] in making the code run [OR SIMILAR] on the Berzelius resource.”

or

“We thank [NAME] at NSC for [his/her] assistance with [describe tasks such as porting, optimization, etc.] on the Berzelius, which was made possible through application support provided by National Supercomputer Centre at Linköping University.”