Advanced computing access in Victoria

VPAC, in collaboration with BioMelbourne Network and the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, has launched the BioPlatform.

The BioPlatform is an open collaboration facility that enables research organisations to access leading drug discovery and bioinformatics tools and run them on the 'state-of-the-art' VPAC High Performance Computing system. The software tools include both commercial proprietary and open source packages and include the IBM Discovery Link Solutions, the LION bioscience suite, Schrodinger software and the Tripos Discovery Suite, to name a few.

The VPAC BioPlatform offers Victorian research organisations involved in biotechnology or drug discovery, easy and cost-effective access to an advanced computing service and the world's major life science software tools and database information. The BioPlatform places advanced research capabilities in the hands of Australian research organisations and aims to enhance the international competitiveness of the Australian research industry by reducing R&D costs and increasing R&D cycles.

The BioPlatform is easily and cost-effectively accessible to small to medium research organisations and academic groups across Australia. VPAC works in partnership with software vendors to develop a solutions support infrastructure that will enable customers to access these advanced scientific solutions in a secure environment, hosted and supported by VPAC. For commercial, small to medium research organisations where the BioPlatform is used for a commercial outcome for drug discovery or intellectual proprietary, access to proprietary software solutions on the platform is granted via a simple token licensing scheme. Access is free of charge for research conducted for academic or publication purposes.