FY27 HPC Allocation Cycle Requests Due June 11

June 4, 2026

The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) provides high-performance computing (HPC) and related capabilities to support the mission of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI). CMEI is advancing America's critical minerals supply chains and accelerating next-generation energy technologies to strengthen our nation's energy security and power our future. Research and development projects funded by CMEI offices or aligned with the CMEI mission are eligible to utilize HPC resources, including mission-relevant computing projects supported by industry collaborators or university partnerships. HPC focus areas include materials science, manufacturing, fluid dynamics, energy systems integration, and forecasting as well as cross-cutting areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

On behalf of CMEI, NLR runs an annual open call for research and development projects to request use of a defined quantity, or allocation, of the compute resources at NLR. This notification serves as the announcement of this call for allocation requests. The FY27 allocation period of performance runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027.

Resources will be allocated on NLR's third-generation supercomputer, Kestrel. Kestrel features a heterogeneous architecture, consisting of standard compute nodes (CPU only) and accelerated nodes (GPU), with total computing capability at 56 peak petaflops. Resources to be allocated on Kestrel for FY27 include 191 million “allocation units,” or AUs, on standard compute nodes; 130 million AUs on accelerated nodes; 30 petabytes of shared data storage; and up to 60 petabytes of long-term data storage. Standard compute nodes provide 10 AUs per node hour, and accelerated compute nodes provide 100 AUs per node hour. Kestrel standard compute nodes have two Intel Sapphire Rapids 52-core processors. Kestrel accelerated nodes have four NVIDIA H100 Tensor core GPUs and two AMD Genoa 64-core processors.

Allocation requests must be completed and submitted by June 11, 2026.

An NLR account is required to submit a request. Users are encouraged to request an NLR account as early as possible to expedite the submission process. Request an account.

Users are encouraged to submit requests for projects in which a proposal has been or is planned to be submitted or is pending funding as well as ongoing projects. Requesting an allocation will not affect the funding status of any submitted or pending proposals.

Allocations may be requested by completing the online allocation request form.

For more information:

Read more about the HPC allocation cycle, including the latest version of the call.
Learn more about the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.
Explore the capabilities of Kestrel.
Learn more about allocation units.

Contact [email protected] with submission questions or issues.