Get Started with MSI
Access to MSI resources is available to UMN faculty members for their research groups and classes, and to faculty researchers at other Minnesota institutions of higher education. If you are a member of a student and want access to MSI, you will need to gain it though your faculty advisor.
MSI organizes by what we call a "PI group," which is a Principal Investigator (generally a faculty member, but not always, see Who Can Get Access) and their students and collaborators. For example, if a student needs access to MSI resources, they would ask their faculty member to add them to their PI group. Being an "MSI PI" has nothing to do with funding, sponsorship, or external resources, it is simply how MSI designates the leader of a research group.
The following individuals are eligible to open a Principal Investigator (PI) group at MSI:
- Faculty members at the UMN with job classifications 9401, 9402 9403, 9410, 9362)
- To gain access, go to the Access Form to request an account (must be on the UMN VPN)
- Instructor faculty members at the UMN with job classification 9404
- To gain access: the appropriate dean, department head, or center director must submit the Non-faculty PI eligibility form
- Instructors at the UMN for class accounts
- Instructors may request accounts for students in a course they are teaching
- These requests should be made at least two weeks before the class begins
- To gain access, follow the instructions at Applying for Class Accounts
- Academic Professionals with job classification 97xx
- If their research is not part of research led by a faculty member and/or a center/institute.
- To gain access, the appropriate dean, department head, or center director must submit the Non-faculty PI eligibility form to be eligible
- Faculty researchers at other accredited institutions of post-secondary education in the State of Minnesota.
- Due to licensing agreements, some software packages cannot be used by the research groups of PIs not affiliated with the University of Minnesota; for questions, please contact the MSI Help Desk
- To gain access, please contact the MSI Help Desk
- Emeritus faculty of the University of Minnesota
- To gain access, please contact the MSI Help Desk
PLEASE NOTE: Postdocs are not eligible to be an MSI PI.
Information about Data Storage, both free and paid
Information about High Performance Computing, both free and paid (dedicated nodes)
Our Access Guides in our Knowledge Base are a good way to learn how to connect to and navigate within MSI systems. MSI also has Tutorials that offer training beyond what is covered in the Quick Start Guides.