Compute Canada, in partnership with regional organizations WestGrid, Compute Ontario, Calcul Québec and ACENET, leads the acceleration of research innovation by deploying state-of-the-art advanced research computing (ARC) systems, storage and software solutions. Together these partners provide essential ARC services and infrastructure for Canadian researchers and their collaborators in all academic and industrial sectors.
Part of a National Team
WestGrid's Team Members are part of Compute Canada’s nationally distributed network of experts (~200 FTEs) employed by 34 partner universities and research institutions across the country, provide direct support to research teams. These local support personnel are Compute Canada's greatest strength, as they work close to the researchers they serve and provide Compute Canada and the regions with a unique understanding of the Canadian research community. These front-line staff play an essential role in delivering local training, outreach, and other user support interactions.
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Compute Canada is a proud ambassador for Canadian excellence in ARC nationally and internationally.
National Framework
The infrastructure (computational and data storage systems) is owned by the institutions but managed by the local, regional ARC team members (the Site Leads in WestGrid) as well as the national systems teams (in some cases).
The backbone of WestGrid’s is network is CANARIE, which provides advanced networking into each province. Our computing resources are connected by several of CANARIE’s National Research & Education Networks (NRENs) partners, including BCNET, Cybera, SRNET and MRnet, with links of various speeds up to 100 Gigabits/second.
Regional Organizations
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WestGrid works collaboratively with 15 partner institutions across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to bring together advanced research computing facilities, research data management services, and a network of technical experts in support of advanced research computing. |
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Compute Ontario is a not-for-profit corporation, incorporated in 2014, formed to support advanced computing in Ontario. For more information, visit the Compute Ontario website. |
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Calcul Québec is a research consortium consisting of all Quebec universities and colleges that provides a world-class scientific infrastructure for high performance computing (HPC), as well as the services of analysts to assist users and HPC training. For more information, visit the Calcul Québec website. |
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ACENET is a consortium of Atlantic Canadian Universities providing advanced research computing resources, collaboration and visualization tools, software, training, and support. For more information, visit the ACENET website. |
Roles & Responsibilties
Compute Canada |
Regions (and Institutions)
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| Centralized leadership and coordination (Science & Technology) | Management of Highly Qualified Personnel Team Members |
| National-scale initatives (e.g. resource allocation, procurement, site selection, security program, account renewals, etc) | Front-line user support |
| Coordination of technology planning (through community consultations) | Technology hosting and installation |
| National services (Compute Canada Cloud, Globus, ownCloud, Research Data Management) | User training |
| Securing funding and ARC advocacy | Financial reporting |
| Addressing federal & funder priorities | Addressing institutional & provincial priorities |
| National & international partnerships | Local & regional partnerships |
Ultimately, the Regions and Compute Canada have the same end goal - to meet the ARC needs of the Canadian research community to enable world-class research.