ACCESS Allocation Services DEI Plan: Advancing an open, inviting, and democratized allocations marketplace for the national research cyberinfrastructure ecosystem

This report outlines the ACCESS Allocation Services program Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan and the innovative changes to the allocations and resource management process putting DEI center stage around a continuous improvement paradigm. The program vision states “the NSF-funded national Cyber Infrastructure must be accessible and equitable for all 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 ACCESS Allocations team aims to achieve these equity goals by implementing DEI plan goals and through a holistic approach focused community engagement.  This includes introducing a new tiered system that opens opportunities for graduate students from U.S. institutions with a faculty advisor letter of collaboration to lead allocation projects, new innovative pilots that will expand accessibility, intentional outreach and collaboration with minority serving institutions (HBCUs, TCUs, HSIs), tapping the diversity of these communities to serve as reviewers, and actively responding to community feedback through a continuous improvement program.