The U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS program has recently unveiled a new way to stretch your allocation credits, the ACCESS Variable Marketplace. This new tool will be beneficial to both Resource Providers (RPs) and researchers and educators using their allocations.
How It Works for Researchers
For researchers, the Variable Marketplace offers a unique opportunity to exchange ACCESS Credits for discounted resource allocations, maximizing the value of projects. Managing an allocation and taking advantage of these discounts is seamless within the existing portal. On the ACCESS Allocations “My Projects” page, clear indicators indicate whether a resource is currently discounted. A bright yellow banner at the top of the page indicates discounts are available.
Once the selector is expanded to add a resource, badges clearly display which specific resources feature a discounted rate, accompanied by a description of the discount. When a discounted resource is selected, and ACCESS credits begin to be exchanged for resource units, the system will automatically apply the discount. Users can then complete and submit the exchange form exactly as they normally would.
Discounts are only applied at the exact time of the exchange. Once an exchange is finalized, resource allocations are handled exactly like any other standard allocation for the full duration of a project.
How It Works for Resource Providers
The Variable Marketplace enables Resource Providers (RPs) to easily set and modify dynamic exchange rates for their resources. This feature allows RPs to establish a standard “base rate” alongside a temporary “discount rate.” This flexibility makes it easier for RPs to quickly adapt to changing demand and highlight readily available resources for research projects.
The new features of the Variable Marketplace are exclusively available within the ACCESS allocations process. However, all clients who use the XRAS software for their programs will benefit from the updated backend, as the newly rolled-out resource configuration interface applies across all platforms.
Improving ACCESS For All
The Variable Marketplace was originally conceived to work in tandem with other program initiatives. One of the early innovations in ACCESS allocations policy was the change to a credit-based approach: Users were awarded credits they could exchange for time on resources of their choosing. This addressed a few concerns – allowing a faster approval process for smaller allocations, and providing flexibility for researchers who may want to try different resources.
“One challenge with this approach is to appropriately ‘price’ each resource,” said Nathan Tolbert, one of the ACCESS staff members who worked on the Variable Marketplace. “Originally, each resource’s exchange rate was calculated based on performance metrics, but we wanted to provide additional flexibility beyond these static calculated rates. We hoped to see whether the ability for resource providers to modify their exchange rate ‘prices’ would influence how researchers selected resources. For example, if a resource was new or had a surplus of capacity, we hoped that a temporary discount in prices might drive researcher interest. By providing incentives in the form of reduced or increased exchange rates, we wanted to see if the modified rates would cause them to consider other resources that could be beneficial for their work.”
This new tool aligns well with the overarching goal of the ACCESS program: helping researchers and educators select the computational resources that best suit their needs. “We hope that the variable marketplace might aid in this goal by nudging researchers to resources with more availability, or directing researchers to systems that may provide discounts for the types of research that they are doing,” explained Tolbert. “Although the marketplace pricing is driven by the resource providers, we hope that the end result is success on the part of the researchers, by having selected an appropriate system and maximizing their use of computational of their computational credits.”
In addition to tracking how quickly researchers can access the resources they need to complete their research, the team will monitor the resources, hoping more are used and that wait times for high-demand resources drop. The creation of the Variable Marketplace and its subsequent refinement have benefited from a highly collaborative effort among colleagues at Harvard Business School, London Business School, and Syracuse University.
Log in to the ACCESS Allocations page today to check for active resource discounts and make credits go further.