Purpose: The DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) established Institutes to meet the specialized HPC software needs of DoD Acquisition Engineering (AE) and Science and Technology (S&T) stakeholders. The Institutes will provide a software deliverable to the DoD HPCMP community of Users for use on the HPCMP resources.
Overview: Institutes will be managed as part of the Associate Director for Software’s portfolio and they will have three main emphasis areas. The Institutes:
1) Must be a focused effort with a software deliverable to improve eithera. the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) products specifically,b. or the DoD HPCMP community in genera
l2) Must have an impact on the DoD HPCMP strategic goals and objectives
3) Must have a high likelihood of strongly impact impacting the DoD Acquisition Engineering (AE) or Science and Technology (S&T) communities. Additionally:a. Direct impact on DoD Programs of Record or high-profile pre-programs is encouragedb. Multi-service impact is encouraged.
The Institutes will have a three-year duration with a maximum budget of $2M per year. Performance will be evaluated in an Intermediate Program Review (IPR) after each of the first two years to determine if the next year is funded and if any course corrections are required. DevSecOps and Software Factory practices will be followed in the development of the software. These practices include software versioning with a repository (e.g. Subversion, GIT, GITLAB), documentation tied to individual versions, automated testing, build process, and alpha/beta testing by select users. The DoD HPCMP can provide consultation and resources (e.g. repository, cpu hours for testing) for the software engineering requirements upon request.
Institute Deliverables: The following deliverables will be provided to the DoD HPCMP.
1) Weekly Activity Reports (WAR) of significant accomplishments or events [weekly].
2) Financial Obligation/Expenditure data [monthly].
3) Intermediate Progress Review (IPR) briefing materials [yearly].
4) Final Briefing [end of 3rd year].
5) Developed source code with unlimited government use Intellectual Property (IP) rights [access to repository throughout and delivered end of 3rd year.
6) All dependency libraries with their licenses for evaluation by the HPCMP to ensure the license restrictions are suitable or another library can be used to replace it [yearly].
7) Build scripts with documentation sufficient to build the software [yearly[.
8) Source code documentation, Users Guide, and Developers Guide that provides technical descriptions of the methods used in the software tied to the. software version [yearly].
9) Automated and manual test cases with all comparison data (clearly marked with distribution restrictions) and automated test harness [yearly]
Eligibility: Institutes must be sponsored by a DoD government scientist/engineer and must use HPCMP resources to enhance mission impact and capability as discussed in the Overview. The Institute Managing Director and investigators/developers may be scientists or engineers from government, industry, or academia. If the Managing Director is a DoD government scientist/engineer, there is no need to name a separate DoD sponsor.
Submission: All Institute proposals must be at the unclassified level. If an exception is needed for a classified submittal, please contact Dr. Scott Morton, at
Selection Process: Institutes will be selected by the DoD HPCMP Director following a recommendation from a tri-service panel formed and chaired by the DoD HPCMP Associate Director for Software.
Proposal Contents: Institute Project proposals are limited to 9 pages (single-spaced, standard 12-point font, one- inch margins); it is not necessary that the proposal be 9 pages, provided the required information in each category can be presented in fewer pages. It must be a single Word document or PDF, with the exception of the curricula vitae of the Managing Director which must be a separate document. The cover page and any curricula vitae do not count against the 9-page limit. Proposals must contain the following sections – ordered and numbered as indicated. It is essential that all sections contain the required information in the detail requested.
Cover Page: (Length: 1 page maximum, does not count against the 9-page limit).
Institute Title: Provide the title of the proposed institute.
Executive Summary: Provide an executive summary of the technological gaps being addressed, how they will be addressed, what software deliverables will result, who the targeted stakeholders are, and what the impact will be to the targeted stakeholders. Details of this content should be available in the rest of the document. expected duration of the project, in years (maximum of three years).
Estimated Resources by Year: Summarize the total estimated financial requirements by year, as well as the computational resources in millions of core-hours for traditional CPU requirements and thousands of GPU-hours for GPGPU requirements.
Government Sponsor: Provide the Government sponsor’s name and contact information, if the Institute Managing Director is not a DoD government scientist/engineer.
Institute Managing Director: Provide the Institute Managing Director’s name and contact information. Only one person should be listed, and that person will be the lead for interactions with the HPCMP during the project. Also, provide the Institute Managing Director’s Curriculum Vitae as an appendix.
Key Collaborators: Provide a list of organizations or personnel planned to participate in the project. Curriculum Vitae can also be provided for key collaborator’s if desired.
Impact: Summarize the expected impact of the project to DoD, the warfighter, and the technical community. It is important to show the connection of the delivered software module, capability, or product to DoD system development and programs of record or pre-programs of record.
Technical Goals and Approach: Summarize the technical objectives of the project and the planned software development approach.
Software Engineering and Security Plan: Describe the software engineering and security plan consistent with the overview section and show how the effort will provide best software engineering and security practices.
Major Applications Software: Describe the major CREATE or other software applications the delivered software module, capability, or product will impact, if applicable. If applicable, describe the plan for including the Major Software Application Software team in the development of the new software deliverable to ensure seamless transition at the end of the Institute timeline.
Technical & Software Development Challenges: Summarize anticipated challenges for the project and the planned software development approach.
Execution Strategy: Summarize how the funding will be executed, for example government labor, contract labor, etc., to accomplish the technical approach outlined above.