The National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System (NICIS) is making funds available to researchers in the areas of cyberinfrastructure (CI) to support both fundamental and applied research for the advancement of the foundational sciences and technologies for CI and across a multitude of disciplines spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural and engineering sciences and beyond, which leverage CIs to achieve its multidisciplinary research goals.

The development of National eResearch Support Program (NeRSP) aims at encouraging fundamental and applied research, which develops technologies, and techniques that advance the South African Cyberinfrastructure  and its efficient utilization. Hence the focus of this research will be in areas that provide tangible inputs into theNICIS. The primary aim of this program is research capacity development through a competitive research grant award system.

NICIS aims to “exploit the enormous synergies that can be derived from integrating national CI into a cluster of mutually supporting activities which leverage high-level financial aid and strategic planning as well as oversight and management”.

One of the goals of NICIS is to increase knowledge creation through the provision of a national platform of essential CI enabling researchers to position SA as a global player and contributor in cyber-enhanced research. This spans the spectrum from data-intensive and big-data research, high-end computing, the need to move large amounts of data across the National Research and Education Network (NREN) to researchers that use tools required to efficiently utilize the available CI.

The rationale for this call is to make funds available to researchers in areas of CI, including all fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), Humanities and the Social Sciences (SS). This funding instrument is intended to support fundamental and applied research:

1. for the advancement of the foundational sciences and technologies for CI, which includes, but is not limited to: computational science; data science; computer science; network and storage technologies; and
2. across a multitude of disciplines spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural and engineering sciences and beyond, which leverage CIs to achieve its multidisciplinary research goals.

Research focus areas

• Theme A: Technologies and tools for data-intensive research and for petascale data storage and management.
• Theme B: High-speed, secure networks for research communities.
• Theme C: High-end computing infrastructure and tools.

Visit the NICIS site to find out more.