About Us

QCIF (the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation) provides the high-performance services, infrastructure and support required to achieve excellence in computation and data-driven collaborative research and its application in industry. QCIF operates with its members and partners delivering services to research throughout Queensland and increasingly via Commonwealth programs to the nation.

Our mission is to accelerate and strengthen innovation throughout Queensland research and business through broad-based and effective application of high performance computing, large-scale data management and regional, national and international collaboration.

QCIF is a not-for-profit public company limited-by-guarantee. It was established in 2000 under the name QPSF (Queensland Parallel Supercomputing Foundation) and changed its name to QCIF in 2006. Its members are six Queensland universities – The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, James Cook University, CQUniversity, and the University of Southern Queensland. The University of the Sunshine Coast is an associate member.

QCIF is funded through its members, triennial grants from the Queensland Government Department of Employment Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) and project-based funding from the Commonwealth Government. QCIF is an active participant in the high performance research infrastructure initiatives funded by the Commonwealth Government. It was a founding member of the ARCS project, is a member of the AAF and NCI projects and works closely with the RDSI and NeCTAR projects (see elsewhere on this website for further details)

Together with its members, QCIF co-funds a statewide network of high-performance infrastructure, and a team of member employees providing support and development services, for the benefit of researchers and businesses throughout Queensland. It provides and promotes eResearch services by:

• Stimulating the application of the high-performance infrastructure
• Co-developing software tools with users to facilitate computation, modelling, analysis and data management
• Providing support, training, and expertise in the use of the infrastructure and services
• Facilitating funding from the Commonwealth eResearch organisations for research infrastructure development projects located in Queensland
• Engaging industry with research communities to foster industry-oriented research and development projects (for both small-to-medium enterprises and large strategic industry opportunities) through an Industry Innovation program.

QCIF is strategically positioned in a fast-moving, rapidly evolving field that will have major impacts on the excellence of future research and on the strength of the economy of Queensland.