OARC enables research, scholarly achievements, and workforce development through research computing, data science, next generation research networks, and creative learning environments. Specifically, we provide centralized, free (unless you want to become an owner), open-access advanced cyberinfrastructure (a term that brings together research computing, networking, data, and storage) and support for faculty, staff, and students across all Rutgers campuses and locations.

OARC facilitates research through high performance compute equipment such as the supercomputer Amarel and through human resources such as our domain and data scientists, who are able to help you and your lab use the equipment to perform your research efficiently. Those scientists also perform training and education, and they are available to partner on sponsored research projects. Our team of systems administrators design, install, and manage the clusters so you don’t have to and so your students can be trained in performing research instead of maintaining clusters. Our business operations team is here to assist with owner purchasing as well as grant proposal and award administration. Finally, OARC’s leadership team is made up of nationally recognized experts in the field. They coordinate infrastructure investment and expertise on behalf of the university, working to advance Rutgers’ research across the Big 10 and beyond.

Actually, we’re part of both ORED and OIT. OARC is blessed to have central support from both groups, allowing us to bridge the gap that is sometimes felt between research and other faculty goals and that of enterprise information technology. We know the aim of research faculty is changing the world, and we advocate for their needs while working very closely with OIT to improve the university’s infrastructure.

OARC will never compete with the research community for an award. We are here to make Rutgers research more proficient. But there are a number of ways OARC is involved with sponsored research projects.

First, when appropriate, we submit our own proposals to bring research computing resources to the university. Mostly, these are compute and networking equipment grants, but sometimes they are workforce development grants to train students and grow the field. These equipment proposals are sometimes collaborative, too, such as a recent S10 high-end instrumentation proposal led by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Our team of research and education facilitators, who are themselves research scientists, are also encouraged to collaborate with faculty researchers in writing the science on their proposals and then assisting them with performing it once awards are received.

We call our team of research and data scientists REFs. It is a standardized term in the field of high performance/research computing, and is a shortened version of Research and Education Facilitator.

OARC offers free, regular trainings, on all campuses and virtually, all year-round. See the Training and Scientific Consultation page on this website for details and registration information. You can also contact our Director of Research Support, Galen Collier, to coordinate a training specifically for your school or lab.

General questions can be directed to OARC’s Program Assistant, Joylynn Almeida: joylynn.almeida@rutgers.edu. Technical questions can be sent to help@oarc.rutgers.edu to reach the OARC research scientists. They can generally answer questions about Amarel’s capabilities related to your specific science needs, and they can loop in the tech team (systems administrators) or business team (grant proposals and owner purchasing) as needed.