Follow-on to XSEDE program to be instituted September 1 

By Dina Meek, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

The National Science Foundation has awarded $52 million over five years to five lead institutions and their sub-awardees to facilitate its Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem Services and Support, or ACCESS program. The award period is from May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2027; however, XSEDE will still be active through this August.

"XSEDE is very pleased to see these awards being made by NSF. The timing will allow for an orderly transition from XSEDE to ACCESS that minimizes disruption to the research community. XSEDE looks forward to collaborating with the ACCESS awardees to transition capabilities as appropriate."  – John Towns, XSEDE PI and project director

The ACCESS program decentralizes its various services, democratizing and further broadening access to NSF's cyberinfrastructure ecosystem. Its service tracks and awardees are:

• Track 1 – The RAMPS Allocations team led by Shawn Brown, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The Allocation Services track comprises three defined activities: Allocation Services; Innovative Pilots; and a Service Model.

• Track 2 – The MATCH User Services team, led by Shelley Knuth, University of Colorado Boulder. The End User Support Services track comprises four defined activities: General User Assistance; Allocation and Utilization Assistance; End User Training; and a Computational Science Support Network.

• Track 3 – The CONECT Operations and Integration Services team, led by Amy Schuele, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The Operations and Integration Services track comprises three defined activities: Operational Support; Data and Networking Support; and Cybersecurity Support.

• Track 4 – The MMS Monitor & Measurement Services team, led by Tom Furlani, State University of New York at Buffalo. The Monitoring & Measurement Services track comprises three elements: Monitoring & Measurement Operations; Service Model; and Data Analytics Framework.

• ACCESS Coordination Office – The OpenCI team, led by John Towns, NCSA. The ACO will provide coordination and support services and staffing for top-level coordination and communications among the ACCESS awardees and with the public, including support for top-level inter-awardee governance, coordination of an external advisory board to the ACCESS awardees, maintenance of the top-level landing page of the ACCESS website, and coordinated community-building activities. The ACO itself will not engage in overall governance or management responsibilities for ACCESS but awardees will enable other ACCESS awardees to accomplish those activities through provision of staffing and services.

The original solicitation called for a Technology Translation Services track, which has been postponed by NSF.

Read the full release from NSF