ACCESS Get your first project

Citation

ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services and Support), U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). “Get Your First Project.” ACCESS Allocations web page, publication date unknown. https://allocations.access-ci.org/get-your-first-project. Read 2026-10-15.

Bottom line

• ACCESS gives a first project in five steps. The steps are: make an account, choose a project type, find resources, submit a request, and exchange credits.
• The smallest request (Explore) needs an abstract, a short CV and grant details. ACCESS usually decides it “by the next business day”.

Background

This page is the ACCESS onboarding guide for a new principal investigator (PI). It links to the project types, the allocations policy, the resource catalog and the support site.

Key claims

• Account: “For both PIs and users, your institutional email addresses must match your institutional affiliation listed; for example, gmail.com and yahoo.com domains are prohibited.” (section “Create an ACCESS Account and Log In”)
• Scope: “ACCESS supports almost any kind of open science work, no matter how (or if) the work is funded, and we always welcome instructors using ACCESS resources for classroom activities.” (section “Choose the Project Type that’s Right for You”)
• Entry level: “Not sure how your needs translate into resource units? Then get started with an Explore ACCESS project.” (same section)
• Speed: “For an Explore ACCESS request, you’ll usually hear about the outcome by the next business day”. (section “Prepare and Submit Your Request”)
• Request items (section “Prepare and Submit Your Request”):
  • “Project Title and brief overview (abstract).”
  • “Supporting grant information.” The page says: “We use this to show funding agencies the value of ACCESS to the researchers they support.”
  • “All requests need a CV or resume (max 3 pages) for the project lead (PI) and any co-leads (Co-PIs).”
  • “If the project lead is a graduate student, we need a signed letter from their advisor affirming the advisor’s awareness of and support for the project.”
• Second gate: “your Exchange request will be reviewed by resource representatives to make sure the resource is appropriate for your work. Allow up to a week for this approval.” (section “Exchange Credits for Resource Time”)
• Users: “As a project lead, you can add other individuals as users on your resource allocations. You will need to know their ACCESS IDs.” (section “Add Users & Start Using Resources!”)

Evidence and method

This is a how-to page. It states the steps. It gives no data on how many requests ACCESS approves or how long decisions take.

Limits

• The page covers only the Explore path in detail. It sends readers to the “How-To” pages for the larger project types.
• “Usually” by the next business day is a claim with no data behind it.
• The page has no date.