Guidelines for the handling of applications from Member States for computer time for Special Projects

Application procedure

1. Requests for the allocation of computer resources for Special Projects should be made by 30 April each year via the Director of the meteorological services of the appropriate Member State.
    
2. Each request for Special Project time should be accompanied by documentation setting out the specific basis of the project and a reasoned estimate of the resources required. The following format is suggested:
    
   1. Name of applicants and their affiliation
   2. Title of project
   3. Description of the project and an indication of its relevance to numerical weather prediction - if this request is for the continuation of a previous Special Project then an interim report must be included
   4. Estimates of computer resources required in each of the three following years
   
    
3. The Centre should comment on each individual proposal.
    
4. The Scientific Advisory Committee should review the scientific aspects of each proposal and, having regard to the resources available, rank them in order of relevance to the Centre's objectives.
    
5. The Technical Advisory Committee should, on the basis of the Centre's comments and the SAC review, recommend for approval by Council the allocation of Special Projects computer time and resources.
    
6. Interim and final reports on the results of research conducted using Special Project computer resources must be made available to the Scientific Advisory Committee and Council by 30 June each year. If an interim progress report is not provided by 30 June each year the Special Project will not be considered for an allocation in the following year.
    
7. Special Projects which will have substantial unused allocations by 30 June will be contacted by ECMWF and asked to release any surplus units. These units will be available to Special Projects which are likely to exhaust their allocated resources during the year.
    
8. Special Projects are requested to acknowledge the use of ECMWF's computing and archive facilities in any publication which result from this work. The following form, or appropriate modification, can be used:

   "Acknowledgement is made for the use of ECMWF's computing and archive facilities in this research"
    

Interim and Final Reports

1. Interim reports should normally be 2 to 10 pages in length, though final reports may be longer.
2. Reports should be made available in electronic form, i.e. Word, WordPerfect, Framemaker or LaTex. The electronic copy of the report must be sent via e-mail to special_projects@ecmwf.int