DOE INCITE Early Career Track (Frontier/Aurora/Polaris compute)
Source: https://doeleadershipcomputing.org/call-for-proposals
Expires: 2026-06-15
Description
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+ 1 The U.S. Department of Energy's INCITE program (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) reserves 10% of allocatable time on its leadership-class supercomputers — Frontier (Oak Ridge), Aurora, and Polaris (Argonne) — for an Early Career Track aimed at researchers within 10 years of earning their PhD. Awards are large: 500K–2M node-hours on Aurora/Frontier exascale systems and 100K–250K node-hours on Polaris, allocated for a full calendar year. This is one of the largest pools of free, top-tier AI/ML/simulation compute in the world, but it requires a competitive peer-reviewed proposal — not a quick signup.
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+ 7 Good fit if you are:
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+ 8 • A researcher (academic, national lab, or industry) who earned your PhD on or after December 31, 2016 (i.e., within ~10 years as of the 2027 call)
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+ 9 • Have never been a previous INCITE PI
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+ 10 • Working on AI/ML at scale, large-model training, scientific simulation, or any computationally demanding open-science problem that genuinely needs leadership-class HPC
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+ 11 • Able to demonstrate that your code can scale on GPU-heavy exascale systems (Frontier = AMD MI250X, Aurora = Intel Ponte Vecchio GPUs, Polaris = NVIDIA A100)
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+ 12
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+ 13 Not a fit if you:
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+ 14 • Are a student without a PhD (you can be Co-I, not PI)
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+ 15 • Need quick API credits for a side project (this is HPC time, not OpenAI-style API quota)
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+ 16 • Cannot demonstrate scaling/performance characterization of your code
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+ 17 • Want to do classified, proprietary, or closed-source work (INCITE is for open science)
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+ 23 SystemSiteHardwareTypical Allocation
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+ 24 FrontierOak Ridge (OLCF)AMD MI250X GPUs, exascale500K–2M node-hours
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+ 25 AuroraArgonne (ALCF)Intel Data Center GPU Max (Ponte Vecchio), exascale500K–2M node-hours
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+ 26 PolarisArgonne (ALCF)NVIDIA A100 GPUs100K–250K node-hours
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+ 27
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+ 28 • Allocation period: Calendar year 2027 (January–December)
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+ 29 • A node-hour on Frontier = 1 hour on a node with 4 MI250X GPUs (8 GCDs). For context, large LLM training runs typically consume tens to hundreds of thousands of node-hours.
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+ 30 • Requests above 2M node-hours on Aurora/Frontier are possible but must be explicitly justified with the INCITE Program Manager or Director of Science.
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+ 31 • No cost to awardees. No credit card, no charge — this is a federally funded compute grant.
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+ 37 DateEvent
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+ 38 April 8, 2026Electronic submission portal opens
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+ 39 April–May 2026INCITE proposal-writing webinars (recommended)
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+ 40 June 15, 2026, 8:00 PM EDTHard deadline for new proposals
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+ 41 Summer–Fall 2026Peer review and computational readiness review
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+ 42 November 2026Award announcements (typical pattern)
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+ 43 January 1, 2027Allocation period begins
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+ 44
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+ 45 The call runs annually in roughly the same April–June window. If you miss the 2027 call, the 2028 call will open in early April 2027.
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+ 51 1. Identify your PI. Must hold a PhD dated on or after December 31, 2016, and not have served as INCITE PI before.
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+ 52 2. Characterize your code's performance on a leadership system in advance. INCITE's Computational Readiness review will scrutinize scaling efficiency, I/O patterns, and memory footprint. If you've never run on Frontier/Aurora/Polaris, request a Director's Discretionary (DD) allocation from ALCF or OLCF first to generate scaling data — DD allocations are smaller, easier to get, and explicitly intended as a pathway to INCITE.
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+ 53 3. Attend an INCITE webinar (held annually April–May). The slide decks and recordings are also posted publicly.
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+ 54 4. Register on the INCITE submission portal at doeleadershipcomputing.org when the call opens.
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+ 55 5. Prepare proposal materials (see next section).
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+ 56 6. Submit electronically before the June 15 deadline. Late submissions are not accepted.
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+ 57 7. Early Career applicants: include a short description of how this allocation fits into your 5-year research plan. Early Career proposals go through the same technical/peer review, but the INCITE Management Committee considers them in a separate pool against the 10% reserved capacity.
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+ 62
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+ 63 SectionLimit
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+ 64 Project Executive Summary~1 page
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+ 65 Project Narrative (science, methods, computational approach, milestones)15 pages including all figures/tables
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+ 66 Personnel & biographical sketches2 pages per PI/Co-I (does not count toward the 15)
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+ 67 Publications acknowledging INCITE/LCFSeparate from references
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+ 68 Computational readiness dataRequired — scaling plots, performance metrics
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+ 69 Early Career addendumShort 5-year research plan statement
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+ 70
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+ 71 Key evaluation criteria:
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+ 72 • Scientific or engineering merit and potential for high impact
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+ 73 • Appropriateness of leadership-class HPC for the problem (must genuinely need it — "my laptop is slow" isn't enough)
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+ 74 • Computational readiness and scaling on the requested system
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+ 75 • Feasibility of the team and plan within the allocation period
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+ 81 • Highly competitive. Acceptance rates are typically 20–30% of submissions overall; the Early Career Track is somewhat friendlier because of the 10% set-aside, but it's still selective.
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+ 82 • Heavy lift to apply. A serious proposal is 1–3 months of work, including running scaling benchmarks. You need real preliminary data, not just an idea.
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+ 83 • Open science only. Results, code, and data are expected to be published openly. Not suitable for proprietary IP work.
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+ 84 • U.S. export control. Frontier and Aurora are subject to U.S. export-control rules. Foreign-national PIs and team members from certain countries face restrictions; check with OLCF/ALCF user support before applying if this affects your team.
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+ 85 • Allocation use it or lose it. Unused node-hours don't roll over; large unused balances can affect renewals.
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+ 86 • No AI API. This is bare-metal HPC time — you bring (or build) your training/inference stack (PyTorch, JAX, Megatron, custom MPI, etc.). It's not a replacement for an OpenAI-style hosted API.
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+ 89
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+ 91
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+ 92 • Director's Discretionary (DD) allocations at ALCF or OLCF — smaller, faster turnaround (weeks, not months), and explicitly designed as on-ramp to INCITE. Apply directly via the facility website.
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+ 93 • ALCC (ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge) — DOE's other major allocation program, with a different review cycle (typically June application, July–June allocation year).
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+ 94 • NAIRR Pilot (National AI Research Resource) — lower-friction application for AI research compute across DOE, NSF, and partner systems.
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+ 95 • NSF ACCESS — broader U.S. academic HPC allocation program, lower bar to entry.
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+ 101 • Early Career PIs benefit from co-authoring with an experienced INCITE PI as a Co-I, but the lead PI must meet the early-career criteria.
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+ 102 • Reach out to the facility liaison (ALCF or OLCF user support) before writing the proposal — they review computational readiness sections informally and the feedback dramatically improves success rates.
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+ 103 • Early Career allocations don't have to be small. Awards in this track have ranged into the hundreds of thousands of node-hours, comparable to mainline INCITE awards.
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+ 104 • Renewal is competitive too. A second year requires a renewal proposal (different template) showing concrete progress.
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+ 105
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+ 107
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+ 108 Sources:
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+ 109 • INCITE 2027 Call for Proposals
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+ 110 • INCITE Early Career Track
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+ 111 • INCITE New Proposals Instructions
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+ 112 • INCITE FAQs
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+ 113 • ALCF: DOE INCITE seeks proposals for 2027
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+ 114 • HPCwire: DOE INCITE 2027 Call Opens with June 15 Deadline
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+ 115 • OLCF: INCITE 2027 Call for Proposals
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+ 116 • ALCF INCITE Allocation Program
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