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NSF Awards New Funding to Bolster UVA Research Computing Project
The National Science Foundation is awarding a new grant to support the Virginia Assuring Controls Compliance of Research Data project, known as ACCORD, a program that has helped students and faculty at universities across Virginia gain access to critical research computing resources.
The ACCORD program has provided a platform for researchers to securely share and store data as well as take on projects that require the protection of sensitive data. Participants have included minority-serving institutions, those that do not grant Ph.D. degrees, and others that lack this computing infrastructure.
Neal Magee, an associate professor with the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science, has helped lead this project since its creation in 2019 when he was with UVA’s Research Computing group.
The new funding will help Magee and the ACCORD team identify barriers to entry and address them as quickly as possible, he explained, easing access, and building trust among participating institutions.
“Defining data ownership clearly, and having a clear mapping of rights and responsibilities, is critical,” Magee said.
Magee is working with Ron Hutchins, a former vice provost for information technology at UVA and the principal investigator for the project, and Anita Nikolich, a security expert who works at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The group’s efforts will focus on three areas aimed at streamlining access to the ACCORD system, strengthening its controls, and broadening access: 1) creating a responsive security system that reduces barriers to access; 2) developing new policies that support data rights; and 3) establishing a pilot program with current users of ACCORD and additional partners from historically black colleges and universities in Tennessee.
Hutchins, Magee, and Nikolich hope that this last objective, in which the group will further expand access to the ACCORD computing infrastructure, could lead to new discoveries in a variety of scientific fields while enhancing research and teaching outcomes.
The ACCORD program, a collaboration between UVA and the University’s College at Wise, was launched in 2019 following a $2.5 million NSF grant. The next year, the agency awarded the program an additional $1.2 million to focus on COVID-19 research.
It is estimated that the new NSF grant of $600,000 for the initiative to augment ACCORD, classified as award number 2419788 by the agency, will run through July 2026.
