NRC — Canadian Astronomy Data Centre — Research Facility ### 📋 Eligible Entities - Universities and post-secondary institutions conducting astronomy and astrophysics research - Government research organizations and federal research councils - Non-profit research institutions with recognized astronomy programs - International research collaborators partnering with eligible Canadian institutions - Private sector research entities (limited eligibility; typically as co-investigators with primary institution) Note: Primary applicants must be Canadian institutions or organizations. --- ### 💰 Funding Details - Grant Structure: Non-repayable contribution funding - Scope: Capital infrastructure investment + operating support for data centre operations - Funding Model: Cost-shared arrangement (NRC contribution varies; co-funding typically required from host institution) - No matching ratio specified in base description, but institutional co-investment expected - Multi-year commitment: Ongoing operational support for maintaining and upgrading computing infrastructure - No loan component: Entirely grant-based (non-recoverable) --- ### 🛠️ Approved Expenses - Computing Infrastructure - Large-scale servers and storage systems - High-performance computing (HPC) hardware - Data centre equipment and upgrades - Specialized Software & Tools - Astronomy data management systems - Data processing and analysis platforms - Cloud infrastructure and services - Personnel & Expertise - Astronomy and data science specialist salaries - Data management technical staff - Research support positions - Operations & Maintenance - Data centre operational costs - System maintenance and technical support - Cybersecurity and data protection - Research Accessibility - Infrastructure to enable astronomical discoveries - Data archiving and public data dissemination --- ### ⚠️ Conditions & Milestones - Institutional Commitment Required - Host institution must commit ongoing operational and maintenance funding - Long-term sustainability plan mandatory - Data Accessibility Standards - Data must be made available to Canadian research community - Open science principles encouraged - Public data dissem