ACCESS Allocations policy

Citation

ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services and Support), U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). “ACCESS Allocations Policies.” ACCESS Allocations web page, publication date unknown; it cites NSF Important Notice No. 149 of July 10, 2025. https://allocations.access-ci.org/allocations-policy. Read 2026-10-15.

Bottom line

This is the full ACCESS rule set for who can get compute and how ACCESS decides.
A PI must be “a U.S-based researcher or educator, at the graduate-student level or higher”. Work from any field and any funding source is eligible, but it must be open work, not “Proprietary or confidential”.
Four review criteria apply to all requests, “with the level of scrutiny rising with the scale”. Large requests go to a volunteer review committee twice a year. PIs owe progress and final reports.

Background

The policy says NSF approves it, and the ACCESS Allocations team runs it. It covers roles, eligibility, review criteria, general rules, each project type, the Maximize review, allocation management and appendices. The appendices cover eligibility details, a 2025 letter on eligibility changes and a conflict of interest policy.

Key claims

Purpose (top section):

“These policies ensure that access to the NSF-funded national cyberinfrastructure is equitable for all U.S. researchers no matter the size of the institution, the scale of the planned work, the discipline of the research, or the demographics of the requestor.”
“The process should be easy to navigate for the many researchers with small-scale needs, with escalating levels of justification and review applied as the researchers’ needs grow.”
“The policies and procedures are approved by NSF.” (section “Introduction”)

Eligibility (section “Eligibility”):

“we consider three kinds of eligibility: (1) Eligibility to lead an allocated project; (2) eligibility to use ACCESS resources as part of an allocated project; and (3) eligibility of the work proposed.”
“To lead an allocated project, you must be a U.S-based researcher or educator, at the graduate-student level or higher, at any two- or four-year institution of post-secondary education.”
Users “cannot be retired, self-employed, or otherwise unaffiliated”, and “cannot be on any of the federally managed lists of persons or organizations subject to research security prohibitions.”
“All project activity must comply with the ACCESS Acceptable Use Policy.”

Eligibility FAQ and appendix:

Not eligible to lead: “retired, self-employed, or otherwise unaffiliated”; “based outside of the U.S.”; “undergraduate or K–12 student”. (FAQ “When would I definitely not be eligible to lead an ACCESS project?”)
Graduate students may lead “Explore or Discover ACCESS allocations under guidance from your advisor.” These projects “should not be used to bypass ACCESS Credit limits for work associated with merit-reviewed funding awards.” (FAQ “What if I’m affiliated with a U.S.-based academic institution?”)
Government staff: “If you’re from a U.S. federal, state, or local government agency, you are eligible for an allocation—as long as your agency typically does not provide its staff with resources that would work for your planned research.” (FAQ “What if I’m a researcher affiliated with a non-academic research organization?”)
Private sector: “you must be prepared to publish your work in an open scientific forum. Proprietary or confidential work is not supported by ACCESS allocations.” (FAQ “What if I’m a researcher affiliated with a private sector organization?”)
Funding: “PIs without merit-reviewed funding are only eligible for one allocation, while PIs with merit-reviewed funding awards can receive as many allocations as they have awards.” (FAQ “What kind of supporting grants or funding can ACCESS projects have?”)
Foreign users must not be on five federal lists, such as the “Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Entity List”. (FAQ “What are the restrictions on ACCESS users based on their international associations?”)
“The primary eligibility consideration is that the work is intended for publication or other appropriate forms of scholarly dissemination.” (appendix “Eligible fields of study”)
K-12: “A teacher or educator at an accredited public or private K-12 school or state educational office is eligible to apply for an allocation to support instructional activities.” (appendix “U.S. State and local governments and K-12 schools”)

Review criteria (section “Review Criteria”):

The four criteria are “Appropriateness of Methodology”, “Appropriateness of Research Plan”, “Efficient Use of Resources” and “Supporting Grant Alignment”.
“When a request is supported by merit-reviewed supporting grants, the intellectual component is not subject to further review by ACCESS. However, if a request is not supported by a merit-review award, reviewers will assess the intellectual merit of the proposed work”.

Project types (sections “Explore, Discover, and Accelerate ACCESS Projects” and “Maximize ACCESS Projects”):

Explore, Discover and Accelerate requests “are typically reviewed and processed within two weeks of submission.”
“Up to half the posted Credit limit for the opportunity will be awarded with the initial request. The other half of the Credit limit will be awarded via a Supplement request accompanied by a Progress Report”.
“Explore ACCESS requests require only an abstract”. “Discover ACCESS requests require a one-page description”. Accelerate needs “a 3-5 page project description (template provided) to be reviewed by members of the AARC.”
Maximize: “ACCESS does not place an upper limit on the size of allocations that can be requested or awarded”. “The review process therefore strives to be as rigorous as for equivalent NSF proposals.”

Maximize review (section “Reviews and Awards for Maximize ACCESS Requests”):

“Maximize ACCESS requests are accepted, reviewed, and awarded semi-annually.”
“The availability of resources (i.e., the amount of service units available for allocation) is not considered in the review.”
“This reconciliation process reduces large allocations more than small ones and prioritizes projects supported in full or in part by NSF grants.”
The ACCESS Allocation Review Committee (AARC) “consists of volunteer experts from the faculty and staff of U.S. universities, laboratories, and other non-profit and commercial research organizations.” Members serve “a term of approximately three years”. (subsection “ACCESS Allocation Review Committee (AARC)”)
“An Appeal should be submitted within four weeks of the date when the PI is notified of the review results.” (subsection “Appeal process”)

Duration and use (section “General Allocation Policies”):

Projects with no merit-reviewed award get “12-month periods”. “PIs can request 12-month extensions, up to a total of five years”. (subsection “Allocation duration”)
“At the end of an allocation period, projects forfeit any unused allocation units.” (subsection “Forfeiture of unused allocation units”)
PI name, institution, title and abstract “shall be publicly available”. Requests and reviews “are considered confidential”. (subsection “Confidentiality of requests and reviews”)

Reporting (section “General Allocation Policies”):

Progress report: “In no more than three pages, a progress report should summarize the work accomplished to date, describe how the ACCESS resources were used to support the work, identify any publications in progress, and summarize how the project will be completed”. (subsection “Progress Reports”)
Maximize renewals: “Failure to discuss the resource utilization may result in a reduced or declined allocation.” (subsection “Progress Reports”)
“Upon the completion of any project, the PI must submit a final report”. (subsection “Final Reports”)
“PIs should report all articles or other citable works that benefited from support by ACCESS-allocated resources.” (subsection “Acknowledging support”)

Research security (appendix “Letter to PIs about Eligibility Changes (2025)”):

“These changes have been implemented in response to NSF Important Notice No. 149 (July 10, 2025).”
“Unaffiliated individuals are no longer eligible to use ACCESS resources.”

Evidence and method

This is a policy document. It states rules and roles. It gives no data on approval rates, review times or how often the reconciliation process cuts awards.

Limits

The page has no date. The 2025 letter dates the latest eligibility change.
The policy refers to the ACCESS Acceptable Use Policy at https://access-ci.org/acceptable-use/.
The Maximize submission rules are “detailed in the ACCESS allocations documentation”.

⚠️ Contradiction: the FAQ says graduate students can lead “Explore or Discover” projects. The appendix “Detailed eligibility requirements for project PIs” says “U.S.-based graduate students may serve as the PI on an Explore ACCESS project”. The next appendix section says “Explore or Discover” again.

⚠️ Contradiction: the appendix “Graduate Students and NSF Graduate Student Fellows” says the “graduate advisor must be included on the request as a co-PI”. The ACCESS Get your first project page asks for “a signed letter from their advisor” instead.

⚠️ Contradiction: this policy gives Accelerate “a 3-5 page project description”. The ACCESS Project types page says “3-page proposal (max. length)”.