Innovative Pilots

Through a suite of Innovative Pilots, ACCESS Allocations is introducing disruptive features to support a more flexible allocations process, decentralize the allocation request interfaces to provide multiple entry points and disrupt the notion of the nation’s CI ecosystem being computing-centric, and more!

• A Variable Marketplace model for allocations

  • ACCESS Credits allow researchers the flexibility to request from a diverse set of resources while also enabling them to “spend” in a manner that could potentially stretch their allocation. Resource providers will be able to set the value of their resources to either discount or increase the baseline amount of ACCESS Credits per unit of resource for controlling demand. 

• Building Regional and Campus On-RAMPS to national cyberinfrastructure 

  • By embedding the ACCESS information and interfaces into an organization’s web pages we’ll increase the reach of ACCESS resources by connecting with researchers and educators where they already turn first to look for resources. 

• Integrating Commercial and Academic Clouds 

  • Commercial and academic cloud-based resources have become an integral part of the research computing landscape but lack robust allocation processes to manage these resources. 

• Allocations for CI Resource Workflows 

  • “Packages” of resources to support complex computational workflows and environments such as science gateways may greatly simplify the complex resource landscape for investigators. 

• Allocations infrastructure for Sensor nets and Instrumentation

  • While computing and storage resources can be continuously shared by hundreds or thousands of researchers, some classes of resources — instrumentation, sensor networks, software-defined networks, and human support staff — can only be used by a small number of researchers or research teams simultaneously.

If you’re interested in participating in the planning sessions for these pilots, please fill out the ACCESS feedback form to indicate your interest.