---
title: "Access"
description: "Who can use CLIP, how to request an account, and how to start computing on CBE."
url: "https://clip.science/access/"
---

# Access

Who can use CLIP, how to request an account, and how to start computing on CBE.

CLIP is the shared computing platform for researchers at the Austrian Academy
of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Vienna BioCenter. This page explains who can use it, how to request an account,
and where to go once your account is active.

## Who can use CLIP

CLIP is available to researchers at:

- All institutes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), not only the
  founding partners.
- The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), the Institute of
  Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), and the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) at the
  Vienna BioCenter.

See [About](/about/#founding-partners) for the founding
partners. If you are not sure whether your institute is eligible, email
[contact@clip.science](mailto:contact@clip.science).

## Request access

How you request an account depends on whether you already have a Vienna
BioCenter (VBC) account:

- **You are a member of GMI, IMBA, IMP, or VBCF:** request CBE access through
  the HPC Servicedesk account form.
- **You are at another ÖAW institute and have no VBC account:** email
  [contact@clip.science](mailto:contact@clip.science) to get started. You join
  as an external research computing user.
- **You are still deciding whether CLIP suits your work:** email
  [contact@clip.science](mailto:contact@clip.science), or read
  [where CLIP fits](/where-clip-fits/).

[Request an account in the HPC Servicedesk](https://vbc.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/5/group/6/create/29)


### What to include

Include the following in your request:

- Your institutional affiliation.
- Your research group or lab.
- A short description of your use case, such as the analyses or applications
  you plan to run.

External users can read the
[onboarding information for external research computing users](https://docs.vbc.ac.at/getting-started/external-research-computing-users/).

## Start computing

Once your account is active, the documentation takes you from your first
connection to production work:

- [CBE quick start](https://docs.vbc.ac.at/research-computing/cbe/quick-start/):
  connect and run a small test job.
- [Access CBE with SSH](https://docs.vbc.ac.at/research-computing/cbe/ssh-system-access/):
  set up short-lived SSH certificates on a managed or personal device.
- [OpenOnDemand web applications](https://docs.vbc.ac.at/research-computing/cbe/openondemand-web-applications/):
  work in your browser with notebooks, RStudio, and remote desktops.

New to high-performance computing? The
[VBCF HPC training track](https://training.vbcf.ac.at/training/hpc.php) covers
cluster fundamentals. See [Solutions](/solutions/) for an
overview of the services and [Documentation](/documentation/)
for more guides.

## Available hardware

CBE offers general-purpose CPU nodes (C3), GPU nodes with NVIDIA B200 (G5)
and A100 (G4) GPUs, and high-memory nodes with 8 TB of memory each (M3), backed
by a 1 PB BeeGFS parallel file system. See [Data Center](/data-center/)
for the full breakdown.

## Get help

Account holders can open a ticket in the
[HPC Servicedesk](https://vbc.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/5/group/6).
Prospective users can email [contact@clip.science](mailto:contact@clip.science).
See [Support](/support/) for all options.