XAB 2021 July Meeting

Welcome

Approval of April XAB meeting summary. Motion by Jennifer Schopf, Ani Ural. Approved

Recap and discussion of NSF review

Favorable response from Bob Chadduck & panel. We have not yet received the panel report but will share the report once it is received. Comments from panel commending project for its maturity.

Questions from panel re. preparations for transition from XSEDE to ACCESS. The staff has already been prepping for this, trying to package things as well as we can to transition. Still have concerns about whether there will be adequate time to do the transition. Noted to panel that we are working diligently to manage finances to net zero by end of the project. Bob shared some concern about not having any funds remaining come Aug 2022 in case an extension is needed. Will be difficult to manage to a net zero due to lack of use of participant support/travel due to COVID, so assured him that this shouldn't be a problem.

XRAC allocation event would normally happen in last couple days of August. Backed this up a week to provide time to ensure allocations info can be shared with SPs prior to Aug 31 2022. SPs will need to be structural support /bridge to get us through this. They will be supporting ongoing allocations past XSEDE into ACCESS. Anticipate much of transition will be bore by SPs since they'll be on both sides of transition.

• Discussed this with SP Forum yesterday. Significant interest in spending more time on transition planning & prioritization by each SP on their dependencies on XSEDE and the role the SP Forum might play beyond XSEDE.
• Concerns about licenses (Duo, Globus), reporting accounting data (need to verify what would happen if reporting data ceases)
• Web portal will not be turned off on last day of XSEDE.
• Uncertainty among SPs re. what they can count on post-XSEDE. Will be good to have those enumerated to share with ACCESS awardees to help smooth the transition.

L2 comments:

CEE: many favorable comments by panel about work that CEE has done. Many of the things they commented on will not be part of ACCESS unfortunately. One panelists stated that he has been hard on CEE through the years and is pleased with how the team has used that feedback to grow and improve. CEE team is working to find a way to continue funding these projects.

UAC/Emre: impressed by comments made by panel. Main concern was related to transition. Discussion that many relationships that have been developed are fragile esp with URM groups. Don't want to lose ground with these folks.

ECSS: panel didn't have many questions about ECSS. Mostly focused on impact.

In general, the panel didn't have many questions throughout review.

Q: was there any mention of why CEE was dropped in ACCESS solicitations?

• Was careful to not discuss that during review and keep focus on XSEDE-specific work.
• John has had conversations with NSF separately that they plan to shift much of that to other workforce development programs, but haven't seen evidence of this yet. Seeing more of a "let's see what comes out of ACCESS and then go from there." Concern that if that is how it unfolds, the cadre of folks funded in ECSS/CEE will be off doing other things to maintain employment, so restarting those programs a year or more later will be very difficult. Has taken a decade to build this workforce. Could result in the community having to go through a rebuilding phase.
• No info shared re. timing of ACCESS awards other than to say that awards will be made in FY22. XSEDE ends one month prior to end of federal FY22, so this could be problematic. Ideally need 4-6 mos of overlap to transition, but that is not likely. A lot of uncertainty about how it will unfold.

Q: panel of 4. All repeat reviewers?

• 3 were repeat reviewers and 1 new person. Always ask NSF to have at least half of the panel be return reviewers to maintain knowledge.

Q: Recommendations

• Debrief was just with John & Bob and not a lot shared other than that we can expect a favorable report.
• If panel made recommendations to NSF re. project, what would you like those to be? They may make recommendations to NSF re. transition since that was heavily discussed, but we won't know.

Wrap up/Close Meeting

Motion to close (Emre, Ken).

Next meeting: August 17, 2021 (2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT)