Allocations for the Explore, Discover, and Accelerate opportunities are granted in ACCESS Credits. Once an allocation of Credits is available, transfers of credits must then be made to specific resources.
If allocations on specific resources exist and another resource would be preferred a transfer from one resource to another is available. Note that these transfers will be subject to Credit Conversion rates.
The ACCESS Credits for the Explore, Discover, and Accelerate opportunities are awarded in two phases. The first half of the Credits are available to you upon approval of your initial request. You can request the second half when needed by submitting a supplement request accompanied by a brief Progress Report.
If you require additional credits beyond the posted Credit limit for your type of project, you will need to prepare a request for an allocation opportunity with a higher limit. To be fair to all researchers, we cannot exceed the Credit limits of a given opportunity.
For Maximize ACCESS projects, supplements are available and have no upper limit (in theory). However, supplement requests for Maximize ACCESS projects are subject to resource availability and Resource Provider review and approval.
If you have an Explore, Discover, or Accelerate ACCESS project associated with a supporting grant, your allocation will be established for the duration of that grant. You can renew your ACCESS project when the supporting grant expires only if you have another supporting grant with which to associate the renewal. Note that you may also start a separate project at any time if you receive a separate supporting grant.
If you have a Maximize ACCESS project, you should plan to renew the project annually. However, you may extend your project for six months if you are spending your allocations more slowly than originally planned and renew the project following the extension.
If you have an Explore, Discover, or Accelerate ACCESS project without a supporting grant, you may submit a renewal request (rather than an extension request) if the nature of your planned work changes substantially from the work originally proposed. If you extend such a project for the maximum of five years, you must submit a full renewal request to continue the project.
There is no universal limit on the number of projects a lead investigator may request, but there are limits depending on the nature of the activities you are pursuing.
You may have one Explore, Discover, orAccelerate ACCESS project associated with a given supporting grant. However, you may only have one Maximize ACCESS project, which must combine the activities of all relevant supporting grants that exceed the resource limits of the other opportunity types.
You may have only one project without a supporting grant.
You may also have separate projects to separate non-research purposes from your research activities. For example, you may request a separate project for each distinct classroom activity. You may also request a separate project to support a science gateway separately from your research work. If you are a Campus Champion, you may have a separate project to support your campus.
Conversion rates from ACCESS Credits to resource-specific units are defined by the Resource Provider (RP). Current rates for each resource are listed within their specific entry in the marketplace. The Conversion Calculator helps researchers plan their resource request(s).
Allocation requests within the Explore, Discover, and Accelerate opportunities will be continually accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis through the Allocation Request page.
For requests with research needs that fall within the Maximize allocation opportunity, opportunities to submit requests will be accepted on a semi-annual schedule.
See the Opportunities page for more information on types of projects available.
Explore: 1-2 business days.
Discover: 1-2 business days. However, advisory reviews may take up to a week.
Accelerate: Approximately 2 weeks.
Maximize: The panel review process takes about 3 months from the submission period to the start date of the awarded allocations.
The ACCESS Credits available to the Explore, Discover, and Accelerate ACCESS opportunities are listed on the Opportunities page. These limits will be reviewed as the portfolio of resources in the ACCESS ecosystem changes over time. For these opportunities, you will be awarded half the posted limit upon approval of your request, and you can request the second half when and if needed by providing a brief Progress Report. In fairness to other researchers, we cannot exceed the maximum credit limit for any project in a given opportunity; however, you may submit a request to “upgrade” your project to a different opportunity.
There is no upper limit for Maximize ACCESS requests. However, even with a positive panel recommendation, these awards may be reduced based on resource availability.
The Prepare requests overview page provides a general idea of the types of projects that might be appropriate for a given opportunity and also shows the number of ACCESS Credits available to each.
If you have at least a rough idea of how many resource-specific units your project will take, use the Exchange calculator to see how the ACCESS Credits will translate into resource-specific units on a target resource.
If you're just not sure, we recommend starting with an Explore ACCESS project. Once you've had a chance to try a resource or two and check the performance of your applications, you can “upgrade” your project to a larger-scale opportunity, if necessary.
Yes. As with all projects awarded by XSEDE, current Campus Champion projects will continue to be honored under ACCESS until they expire. When a project expires, Champions can then decide whether their campus facilitation needs fall within the Explore or Discover opportunity. To ensure approval, ensure that your name is listed on the Current Champions page.
Given the simplified requirements for the allocations opportunities, Champions are also welcome to guide researchers directly to the opportunity that makes the most sense for them.
Yes. Gateway projects are welcome across all of the allocation opportunities as their needs develop and expand.
ACCESS considers the allocation requester, the nature of the work to be conducted, the sources of support, and the type of research activity, in determining the eligibility of an allocation request.
ACCESS allocations are available to any researcher or educator at a U.S. academic, non-profit research, or educational institution. Postdoctoral researchers are eligible to be PIs.
New with ACCESS, graduate students are eligible to lead certain project types under the guidance of their advisor. This policy allows faculty members to keep the work associated with their funded research activities separate from their students' unfunded thesis or dissertation work. Advisors are responsible for helping ensure their student's computational plans are scaled appropriately to the Credits available.
A researcher from a U.S. commercial organization may apply for an allocation as the PI. For further clarification on eligibility please see the Allocation Policies.
Yes. Graduate Students are eligible to be the PI of an Explore ACCESS project. The advisor to the Graduate Student must be added as co-PI on the request. Advisors are responsible for helping ensure their student's computational plans are scaled appropriately to the Credits available.
In support of international collaborations with substantive involvement by U.S.-based researchers, researchers located outside of the U.S. are welcome to participate on ACCESS-awarded projects and use ACCESS resources as a co-PI, Allocation Manager, or user. However, researchers located outside of the U.S. are not eligible to be the PI of an ACCESS allocation.
Explore, Discover, and Accelerate ACCESS projects that have a merit-reviewed supporting grant will have an end date that aligns with the end date of the supporting grant. If the grant is extended by the funding agency, you can request an extension to your ACCESS project that aligns with the grant's new end date. These projects can also be extended for six months beyond the end of the supporting grant to wrap up efforts.
Explore, Discover, and Accelerate ACCESS projects without a merit-reviewed supporting grant are initially awarded for 12 months. These projects can be extended in 12-month increments, if needed, for up to a maximum of five years.
Maximize ACCESS projects are awarded for 12 month periods. If such projects are not progressing as quickly as anticipated, you can request a six-month calendar extension. (No additional resource units can be awarded.)
The option to extend allocations will be available when 90 days or less remain on the active allocation. A button for “Extension” will be available under the “Actions” tab under My Allocations.
While filing the allocation request, the option to add additional personnel is available under the “Personnel” section. Additional roles (beyond PI) are available for co-PI, Allocation Manager, and user.
Once an allocation has been approved, the Manage users page will let you change project personnel.
For assistance with your allocation see the Allocations Overview page, or the User Support page.
For assistance with the resources provided through your allocation, please visit End User Support Services for more information on how to get help for your specific resources and workflows.
To submit a help ticket, click here.
For a full list of the resources available through ACCESS, see the Resource Summary page.
