Where Australian Researchers
Run Their Workflows
A guide to high-performance computing and cloud platforms available to genomics researchers in Australia - from free university clusters to national supercomputers and commercial cloud.
University-Level HPC Resources
The University of Adelaide provides managed HPC infrastructure free for eligible staff and students. Note: the University of Adelaide and UniSA merged in 2026 - UniSA-specific URLs are no longer active.
The University of Adelaide's primary HPC system. Supports complex workloads including large-scale genomics data processing, simulations, and modelling. ADAPT provides GUI-based remote desktop access for users less comfortable with the command line.
Telethon Kids Institute supports data-heavy medical and population health research through internal compute infrastructure and collaboration with Curtin University and Pawsey Supercomputing Centre for large-scale jobs.
Flinders University's primary HPC system. Deep Thought provides general compute, standard and light GPU nodes, and a high-capacity node for memory-intensive workloads. Jobs are managed via SLURM with fair-tree scheduling. Singularity containers and JupyterHub are supported. Research data storage services are available alongside the cluster.
University mergers and IT restructures mean some URLs change. If you have a current link or updated information for any platform listed here, we'd love to hear from you.
National HPC & Research Cloud
For projects that outgrow university infrastructure - large cohorts, genome-wide analyses, or long-running simulations - national platforms offer greater scale.
Based in Perth, Pawsey provides supercomputing services for Australian research - bioinformatics, radio astronomy, engineering, and environmental modelling. Setonix is the flagship system; Nimbus provides cloud VM access for long-running services and reproducible environments.
A federated OpenStack cloud platform for Australian researchers - scalable virtual machines for hosting scientific workflows, deploying reproducible environments, running web applications, and processing and storing research data at scale.
Commercial HPC & Cloud Options
Flexible, scalable infrastructure for burst compute, GPU acceleration, managed environments, or workflows that don't fit university cluster queues.
Cloud computing services tailored for academic research and education. EC2 compute instances, GPU capacity, and large-scale S3 storage with academic pricing, research credits, and support programs.
Scalable compute, purpose-built genomics pipeline infrastructure, AI and machine learning tools, and researcher-specific credit programs.
High-performance computing as a service for scientific domains including geophysics and life sciences. Managed cluster access, cloud infrastructure, and technical onboarding support.
Moving Data Between Platforms
Globus via AARNet
Globus enables secure, fast, fault-tolerant transfer of large genomics datasets between research institutions. Widely integrated with Australian facilities including the University of Adelaide and Pawsey. Uses the AARNet high-speed research network backbone.
aarnet.edu.au/globus →How to Choose the Right Platform
When selecting a computing platform, consider the following. If you're new to HPC, start with your university's supported infrastructure - for larger projects, national or commercial systems may offer better scale and flexibility.
Sensitive or patient-linked data may require local or controlled-access infrastructure. Check ethics and governance requirements before choosing cloud.
CPU-intensive workflows versus GPU-accelerated workloads have very different platform requirements. Know your tool's hardware needs upfront.
Short-term jobs suit shared queues. Long-term pipelines or very large datasets may need dedicated or cloud-burst resources.
Platforms like ADAPT lower the barrier with a GUI. Command-line HPC environments give more control but require more expertise to set up.
Free tiers, academic discounts, and subsidised research credits are available across university, national, and commercial platforms. Ask before you pay.
| Free Access | GPU Support | Sensitive Data | GUI Access | Large Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix HPCUniversity of Adelaide | Free | Yes | Supported | ADAPT | Medium |
| Deep Thought HPCFlinders University | Free | Yes | Supported | JupyterHub | Medium |
| Pawsey (Setonix)National Supercomputing | Apply | Yes | Case by case | CLI | Very large |
| ARDC Nectar CloudNational Federated Cloud | Apply | Some nodes | Check policy | VM-based | Medium |
| AWS / GCPCommercial Cloud | Credits avail. | Yes | Check policy | Yes | Unlimited |
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