The BiGEst cluster is currently being deployed. It will open to academic users during fall 2026.
The BiGEst platform provides an HPC computing infrastructure dedicated to biological data analysis. This cluster brings together 2,500 cores, 22 TB of RAM, GPU cards, and 1.5 TB of storage space. It was created by pooling the computing resources of IBMP and IGBMC, together with BiGEst's own resources.
Who can use the BiGEst cluster?
The cluster is accessible to all academic users from countries belonging to the European Elixir infrastructure, with priority given to users from the Grand-Est region in France.
What services are offered?
Two access modes are available for using BiGEst's computing resources:
- an SSH access node for using SLURM via the command line
- an Open OnDemand portal for launching interactive sessions (JupyterLab, RStudio, XFCE desktop)
The BiGEst cluster is also connected to the Globus network to facilitate data transfer.
A collection of over 800 ready-to-use bioinformatics tools (genomics, imaging, structural analysis, etc.), along with numerous reference databases, is available to users.
Available tools include:
- R and Python environments integrating a range of scientific libraries
- tools dedicated to omics data analysis (BLAST, Bowtie, SARTools, etc.)
- tools dedicated to structural data analysis (RELION, AlphaFold)
- tools dedicated to image analysis (Napari, Cellpose, Fiji, Ilastik)
How do I get access to the BiGEst cluster?
BiGEst offers a single portal for managing and allocating cluster resources: https://projects.bigest.unistra.fr
To create your BiGEst account, follow these steps:
- Go to https://projects.bigest.unistra.fr
- Click on "Sign in with BiGEst account" (you will be redirected to the BiGEst authentication portal)
If you are not a member of IGBMC:
- Choose to sign in via LifeScience Login
- Select your institution (CNRS, Inserm, etc.)
- Log in using your institutional account
- Review the account information that will be shared with BiGEst
- Provide the ROR identifier of your affiliated research unit
A BiGEst validator will then finalize the creation of your BiGEst account within one business day. You will then be able to access the projects portal.
If you are a member of IGBMC:
- Choose to sign in via the IGBMC portal
- Log in using your usual IGBMC username and password
You will be able to access the projects portal immediately.
For more information, please consult our online documentation.