All XRAS clients use a similar administrative interface. XRAS Admin, typically found at a URL similar to https://client-admin.xras.org/, allows administrators to manage the panel review process, make allocation awards, extract reports from XRAS, and configure XRAS features. 

In this section, we summarize the menu options and features on the main XRAS Admin page. We discuss how these options and features can be woven together to support your allocations process in the “General XRAS Workflow” section.

Admin Navigation Menu

The XRAS Admin navigation menu provides you options for processing and keeping track of requests, configuring XRAS, searching for requests, generating reports, and getting help. The following options are available, from left to right, at the top of all XRAS Admin pages.

• XRAS Admin [Client]. Clicking on the “XRAS Admin [Client]” link will usually take you to the admin dashboard.

• Dashboard icon. The dashboard icon will always take you to the admin dashboard. See the dashboard information section under “Processing Requests and Actions.”

• Gear icon (settings menu). Selecting the gear icon opens a drop-down menu for options that let you configure XRAS settings, rules and other features.

• Opportunities. The Opportunities menu helps you navigate to current or past allocation opportunities. See the next section.

• Panels. The Panels menu option takes you to the pages for managing your review panels.

• Requests. The Requests option provides a “power search” feature to pinpoint requests in your system.

• Reports. The Reports option provides a list of currently available XRAS reports.

• Search field. The search field in the top menu lets you quickly search by name or request number.

• At the far right, three small icons provide additional options

  • Help icon. Provides a link to the current version of the XRAS Client Admin Guide.

  • Megaphone icon. If there are current XRAS system announcements, you will find them here.

  • User icon. You can log out of XRAS Admin here.

Opportunities

You need to set up at least one opportunity to allow your user community to submit allocation requests. And to create an opportunity, you must have already defined at least one allocation type. In the XRAS Admin application, you can click on the “Opportunities” option in the top menu and then select “All Opportunities” to show the list of all current and past opportunities as well as create a new opportunity.

Create New Opportunity

To create a new opportunity, click on the green “New Opportunity” button at the upper right of the main Opportunities page. You will be directed to the “New Opportunity” form, with the fields you need to fill in to set up an opportunity.

If you create an opportunity for an allocation type that has multiple review phases, the form changes slightly to allow you to configure each review phase.

• Opportunity Name (required). This is the user- and reviewer-visible name for the opportunity that will appear in the Submit and Review interfaces.

• Opportunity Type (required). “Terminating” opportunities are those that have a set schedule, notably a submission deadline and often a review panel meeting. “Continuous” opportunities allow users to submit requests any time; typically you process such requests as they come in. You can set a continuous opportunity to close by entering an end date.

• Allocation Type (required). Select one of the allocation types you defined during your initial setup of XRAS; typically these types are defined in your allocation policies.

• By invitation only (optional). You can limit which users can submit to the opportunity by making it invitation-only. Use “Manage Invitations to Opportunities” under the Rules list to add to the list of users who can submit to an invitation-only opportunity.

• Default allocation award period (optional). Enter a number of months. This will set the default time period for allocation awards in this opportunity. You can still edit the end dates when you process requests.

• Announcement date (optional). The date the opportunity will appear in the submit interface as a future opportunity. Submissions will not be permitted, but the submission notes will be displayed.

• Submission begin date (required). The date on which users can begin to submit requests. This value is required for both terminating and continuous opportunities.

• Submission end date (required for terminating opportunities). The submission deadline for the opportunity—i.e., the last calendar day that the opportunity will officially accept request submissions. Important: Dates end at midnight U.S. Central Time (GMT-6). To avoid cutting off submissions before midnight your local time, you may want to set the Grace Period to 1.

• Grace period (optional). The number of days after the submission end date during which submission requests will be accepted. The opportunity will show as closed on the submit interface, but will still allow submissions during the grace period.

• Award date (optional). The default start date for allocation awards made within this opportunity. XRAS pre-populates the award information with this date, but you can still edit the award start dates when you process individual requests.

• Location (optional). The location of the panel meeting (if any) associated with the opportunity.

• Submission notes (optional). The text entered here will be displayed for users in the default submit interface next to the button to begin a submission to this opportunity. You can, for example, remind users about changes to the available resources.

• Admin comments (optional). Typically entered after a panel meeting, Admin comments can be included in notification emails for allocation awards. These comments are visible to and should apply to all submissions in the opportunity. You can enter comments specific to a given request when you process each request.

• Comments for reviewers (optional). Admins can add notes that all reviewers assigned to a particular opportunity will see in the XRAS Review system. Either during the creation of a new opportunity or when editing an existing opportunity, admins will be able to add text to the “Comments for reviewers” box that will display in XRAS Review on both the landing page and on the overview page for the specific opportunity.

• Primary review panel (required). Select an existing review panel to be the primary review panel for the opportunity. The members of this panel will be visible in the review assignment tool.

• Additional Review panels (optional). You can associate other review panels with this Opportunity. The members of these panels will also be visible in the review assignment tool. You can use this feature to help organize panels with many members or perhaps manage a set of part-time or external reviewers. You can add additional panels after the Opportunity has been created.

• Reviews due by date (optional). The date by which reviews need to be completed for this opportunity. This date is displayed in the Review interface.

• Review date (optional). Typically, you would enter the date of a panel meeting (if any) in this field. This date is also shown in the Review interface.

• Opportunity or phase controls (optional). These toggles are used to control the workflow of the allocation review process. They are described in detail in the next section.

Opportunity and Phase Controls

The Opportunity (or Phase) Controls that can be set on the New/Edit opportunity form are key controls for managing the basic XRAS workflow. For an opportunity with multiple review phases, a separate set of “Phase Controls” will apply to each phase, with effects as described here but limited to a particular phase.

• Show Proposal Rating Tool. Checking this box will make the requests from this opportunity visible to the review panels via the “Rate Requests” tool in XRAS Review. You are not required to use this tool in your process. Uncheck this box to remove this opportunity’s requests from the Rate Requests tool.

• Show Reviewer Assignments. Checking this box will tell XRAS to present review assignments from this opportunity to panel members when they log into XRAS Review. For a continuous opportunity, you will typically check this box when creating the opportunity. For a terminating opportunity, you will typically check this box only after you have finished making review assignments for all of the submitted requests.

• Display Anonymized Reviews. Checking this box will allow XRAS to present users with anonymized review comments via the XRAS Submit UI and to include reviews in email notifications. For a continuous opportunity, you will typically check this box when creating the opportunity. For a terminating opportunity, you will typically check this box only after you have finished processing all of the submitted requests.

Opportunity Information and Processing

From the full list of opportunities, click on the opportunity name to be taken to the primary working page for that opportunity. You will find a set of tabs to view opportunity details and manage the submissions.

Summary and Edit

The Summary tab displays the opportunity data fields and panel information. You can edit most opportunity fields after an opportunity has been created. This may be useful to extend a submission deadline, for example. Editing an opportunity is also the way to manage your workflow, by checking and unchecking the opportunity or phase controls.

At the upper right of the page, choose the “Edit” button to make changes. You will be taken to a page with the heading, “Editing <name of the opportunity being edited>”.  All of the Opportunity fields are editable with one exception: If requests have been submitted to this Opportunity, you can no longer edit the allocation type. See “Create a new opportunity” for detailed field definitions.

Instead of creating every opportunity from scratch, XRAS lets you create a new opportunity by “cloning” (duplicating) an existing opportunity. You may find this useful to create opportunities of the same type that happen on a schedule. From the list of all opportunities, select the opportunity that you want to clone, and you will be taken to the opportunity details. At the upper right, select the green “Clone” button. You will be directed to the “New Opportunity” page, and the form will be pre-populated with data from the original opportunity. At this point, you can edit any of the fields to reflect the new opportunity you are creating. Click on “Create opportunity” to save and create the new opportunity. Click on “Cancel” to cancel the clone operation and return to the page listing all opportunities.

When cloning an opportunity, only the details pertaining to the original opportunity are copied over and a new opportunity is created with no requests. All submissions remain associated with the original opportunity. 

Submissions

The Submissions tab is where you will find all the submissions to date, divided into sub-tabs for completed and incomplete (partial) submissions. The sub-tabs show the number of entries of each kind. 

The listing of completed submissions is provided as a sortable table—click on a column heading to sort the list in ascending or descending order. The Categorize Requests button at the upper right will let you apply your optional custom categories to the requests. In the table, the following fields are shown:

• Submitted on. When the submission was finalized.

• Status. One of Submitted, Under Review, Approved, or Rejected.

• Categories. This column only appears if you have added category information to at least one request. You can sort requests according to your custom-defined categories.

• Reviews completed. This column displays two numbers, “a / b,” where a is the number of reviews completed and b is the number of reviews assigned. Sorting for this column is based on the percentage of reviews completed, with the case of “0 / 0” defined to be zero so you can easily find requests that have not had any assignments made. Hovering your cursor over this info will display a pop-up with a summary of the submitted reviews. 

• PI. The name and institution of the person in the lead role on the submission. The column heading may vary depending on the name you give to the lead role on a submission.

• Number. The submission number and action type (usually “New” or “Renewal”).

• Title. The title of the request, along with three key shortcut links for managing the request:

  • View request—Takes you to the main page for the request information.

  • Assign reviews—Takes you directly to the screen for assigning reviewers.

  • Process request—Takes you directly to the screen for finalizing the award information for the request.

The Incomplete Requests sub-tab is provided to avoid cluttering the list of completed submissions and to help you identify any partial submissions that may require you to contact the submitter.

Process Opportunity

This option is only available to you if your organization has an accounting service implemented. 

When working with terminating opportunities, XRAS allows administrators to process ALL approved and rejected requests in an opportunity by using the “Process Opportunity” tab. 

The “Initiate and Send Notifications” button will create projects and user accounts on approved allocation requests. For those allocation requests that were rejected, this button will only send out email notifications to the personnel related to those requests. XRAS will also post allocation awards to users’ ORCID profiles at this time if you are using this feature.

Clicking on the “Refresh” button will refresh the page and show any errors that may have occurred when contacting your accounting service or when sending notifications.

Available Resource Numbers

You can record the available amounts of allocation units that can be distributed at an opportunity. Entering available resource units is optional. As an admin, you can enter these data for reports and to help maintain a record of your allocation process and how much you targeted for allocation. 

Selecting the tab labeled “Available Resource Numbers” takes you to a page that lists all resources associated with this opportunity, grouped by type. 

Each listed resource shows the following information: resource name, units used to allocate the resource, a link to the history of amounts for this resource for opportunities of the same type, and the resource status. You can fill in a value for the number of allocable units for each resource and a begin date, i.e., the date when the resource will become available for use in this opportunity. The state that the resource is in can be any one of the following: Pre-production, Unavailable, Post Production, Production, Decommissioned. Resource status is set in the Cyberinfrastructure Description Repository.

Click on the “Save Opportunity Resource Numbers” button to save information; you will be redirected to the opportunity details page. If you wish to edit or remove any saved values, you can click the “Available Resource Numbers” tab, and use the “remove” checkbox next to the saved resource value. Click on “Save Opportunity Resource Numbers” again to record changes.

Submission Questions

Under this tab, you can add custom questions to be asked when submitting a request to this opportunity. The Submit UI your organization uses must support the display of these custom questions, if you want to use them.

Follow the provided link to add one or more custom questions for the relevant opportunity on the “Add Opportunity Question” page. You’ll be able to enter text for the question, choose the type of answer you would like the submitter to use: text field, calendar, selection list, radio buttons, etc., and the order in which these questions will appear on the Submit UI.

Recent Deleted Requests

This tab lists all deleted requests associated with this opportunity, with buttons to undelete each such request. Once you do so, the request will be viewable to work with again in the list of requests for an opportunity, dashboard, or any other feature in XRAS Admin. This allows you to help a user recover a submission that they accidentally deleted.

Meeting Results

This tab will allow you to download a spreadsheet of the amounts entered in the Meeting App tool in XRAS Review. The spreadsheet can be reviewed and edited to ensure that all of the entries are correct.

Once the information is verified, there is an option on the Meeting Results tab to upload the spreadsheet. Doing so will present you with a summary of the items in the spreadsheet. If everything looks correct, you may click approve and the results will be entered into XRAS Admin. Any requests without resource amounts in the spreadsheet will automatically be flagged as denied and the others will be marked as approved and be ready for final processing on the process tab.

Email Panelists

This tab allows you to generate lists of panel members' email addresses, with a great deal of flexibility. If your opportunity has more than one review phase, you can select which panels to consider. After choosing the “Generate Email List” option. On the next screen, you can filter and select which panelists you want to reach (all or some). You can then use the buttons to either “compose email,” which behaves like a “mailto:” link in your browser and opens your default email client, or “copy addresses to clipboard,” if you prefer to use an alternate email client.

Note that XRAS only helps you create tailored lists of panel member email addresses. XRAS does not manage or retain the back-and-forth email communications with panelists.

Panels

Within XRAS, a “panel” is a group of individuals that can be assigned to review allocation requests. Admins can create any number of panels in XRAS to discuss and review different types of allocation requests. The Panel menu option in the top navigation bar displays a list of active and inactive panels for your organization.

To create a new panel, click on the green “New Panel” button on the Panels page. Panel name, abbreviation, type and description fields need to be entered for the new Panel. 

After selecting an existing panel, you can edit its details by clicking the “Edit Panel” button. On the Edit Panel screen you can also “retire” (i.e., inactivate) a panel so that it cannot be associated with new opportunities. 

Managing Panel Members

Once a Panel is created, you will see three tabs to manage the panel members:

• Current Members. Here you can view current panel members, add new members, or inactivate members.

• Inactive Members. Here you can view past panel members, or edit and re-activate them as panel members.

• Default Reviewers. You can designate which, if any, panel members are automatically assigned to requests as they are submitted. See “Setting Default Reviewers” below.

Add Panel Members. Once a Panel is created, members can be added by clicking the Panel name, then the Current Members tab. Search for a user by typing their first, last or user names, and select the one you would like to add. A start date needs to be provided; the end date and fields of science are optional. Entering at least a primary field of science is highly recommended, because XRAS uses this information to help you match panel members to requests for making review assignments.

Admins can also indicate if the newly added member is a panel leader or not. Currently, there are no special features available to panel leaders.

Note that a user must already have an account in your Identity Service to be added as a Panel member. Also, the search will not return the names of current or inactive members. 

Inactivate Panel Members. You can immediately inactivate a panel member by selecting the inactivate button for that individual under the Current Members tab. Panel members also become inactive when their term expires, if you have set an end date. To reactivate a panel member, select their name under the Inactive Members tab and edit or clear their end date.

Editing Panel Members. Admins can modify a panel member’s begin and end dates, whether they are the panel leader or not, and their fields of expertise by clicking on the name of the member and editing the desired fields on the “Editing Panel Member” screen. To add a new field of science, you can start typing the field of science name that you would like to add and choose it from the list provided. To remove fields of science or expertise related to a panel member, use the “remove” button near the field of science.

Setting Default Reviewers

XRAS allows you to specify panel members to be automatically assigned as reviewers according to allocation type, by action type, and (optionally) by resource. When submissions come in, XRAS will assign all relevant default reviewers. For example, if you have configured Reviewer A as the default reviewer for Resource A and Reviewer B as the default reviewer for Resource B, when a New submission comes in asking for both Resources A and B, both Reviewer A and Reviewer B will be automatically assigned to the submission.

Also, default reviewers will receive email notifications if you have configured XRAS to send notifications to reviewers when reviewers receive assignments.

To add a default reviewer, under the Default Reviewer tab, start by selecting the green “Add Default Reviewers” button. 

On the form that appears, the current allocation type with which the panel is associated will be selected by default. (You can select other types, but keep in mind that the current panel must be associated with the other allocation type for default reviewers to be assigned.)

Next, select the action types to which this default reviewer will be assigned. You can later return to the form to add different default reviewers for a different set of action types. Then, select the reviewers to be assigned.

Next, select the resources. Selecting “Any Resource” will have this default reviewer be assigned to any submission of the selected action types, regardless of the resources. Or, you can select specific resources.

Finally, click the “Add Default Reviewers” button to save this default reviewer setting. XRAS will present a confirmation screen, along with buttons to return to the panel settings or to add more default reviewers. For example, you may first choose to set default reviewers for new and renewal requests, and then go back to add different reviewers to look at supplements and appeals. Or you may need to return to set different reviewers for new and renewal requests asking for different resources.

Requests (Search) 

The Requests menu option allows you to search for requests according to a number of criteria. You can use this form to search for requests associated with a specific person, with a specific resource, or of a specific type. For example, you might search for requests of type “Renewal” with a status of “Incomplete” from researchers with a last name of “Smith” where a specific resource was part of the submission. The search results will appear below the form.

You can use this “power search” when you are answering questions for a user to avoid having to hunt through the list of opportunities and find the submission being discussed.

Reports

XRAS provides a set of database reports for your convenience. Admins can display the list of current reports using the “Reports” menu option. 

The following reports are some of those that XRAS supports; other existing reports can be added to your reports page upon request. Additional reports can be requested by contacting us at allocations@access-ci.org. Most reports can be displayed on screen or downloaded in either CSV or Microsoft Excel format. 

• Meeting Booklet. Useful for face-to-face meetings with your reviewers, if you prefer coordinating your meeting via paper- or PDF-based materials. The report generates a PDF with all submitted and under review allocation requests for an opportunity. The downloaded zip file also contains Excel files for an index and reviewer/proposal matrix.

• Meeting Summary Report. Generates a report with the total amounts for all resources for relevant opportunity: requested, suggested by reviewers, and approved. It also includes information on supporting grants: total funding, NSF funding, and other non-NSF funding amounts. 

• Request List Report. This report lists all the submitted requests’ metadata for a particular opportunity.

• Resource Summary Request Report. Generates counts and sums of requested and approved for each resource for a given opportunity.

• Reviewer-Request Matrix Report. This report provides a matrix of requests and reviewers indicating which reviewers are assigned to or have a conflict of interest with each submission.

People and Project Search

The search box at the top of the XRAS Admin UI lets you search for users and projects from a single field. Simply enter a username, user’s name, or request number (or some portion of any of these) in the provided search bar. Depending on the search results, XRAS will either show you lists of possible user or project matches from which you can make a selection, or take you directly to the main information page for the unique request or person that was found. 

To search for projects or requests by criteria other than request number, use the more powerful “Requests” menu option.

Managing XRAS Users

After your search finds a unique person or you select an individual from the list returned by a search, XRAS will take you to a page with basic information on this user, including name, organization, position, and username. The data available depends on what your Identity Service API returns.

This person page includes the following tabs:

• Permissions. This tab offers different checkboxes that can be used to grant permission to use XRAS Admin.

  • Administrator. Grant administrator permission to this user to use XRAS Admin with all its capabilities, no restrictions.

  • XRAS Review impersonator. Grant review impersonating permission to this user so that when using XRAS Review, this user can impersonate another reviewer. 

  • XRAS Admin read permission. Grant XRAS Admin read-only permission to this user: request editing and the gear menu are disabled for read-only admins.

• Request Roles. This tab lists all the requests with which this user is associated in any designated role, including submitter.

• Fields of Expertise. This tab shows the primary and secondary fields of science associated with the user, if they have been added as a member of a Panel.

• Active Panels. This tab lists all the active panels on which this user is serving.

• Conflicts of interest. This tab lists all the requests with which this user has a conflict of interest.  

Recent reviews. This tab shows the recent reviews submitted by this user, if this user is a reviewer.