GCRI · Data and Compute
Research infrastructure access
Supercomputers, data repositories, telescopes, laboratories and testbeds are expensive shared facilities, and who can use them shapes what science gets done and by whom. Access rules, peer review, costs, skills and connectivity can exclude smaller institutions and researchers in many countries. This page sets out how access to research infrastructure works, how fairness and use are measured, and what evidence serves the funders and operators who set access policy.
Research infrastructure access on the record.
Research infrastructure access: how the risk develops.
Cost and governance of scientific facilities. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Peer review allocates scarce time
Excellence-based review allocates time to the strongest proposals, which can favour well-resourced groups with experience of writing them.
Skills are a hidden barrier
Researchers need training to use advanced facilities. Without support, access in principle does not become use in practice.
Connectivity and cost exclude
Limited bandwidth, travel costs and user fees keep researchers in lower-income countries from using remote and international facilities.
Federation widens reach
Federated identity, shared allocation schemes and regional hubs let researchers use facilities across institutions and borders.
Infrastructure exposure in the contiguous United States.
Night lights, population density, flood water and true-colour imagery over the contiguous United States, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 4
Infrastructure exposure, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Infrastructure exposure, framed on the contiguous United States.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · U.S. Geological Survey · NASA HLS S30Sources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA HLS S30 (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- River discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information 2026; not a flood warning.
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Optional layers (12 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
Fair access to research infrastructure shapes evidence in every domain.
Findings are designed for the Methods and Technical series. The ESFRI Roadmap (2021) sets out European research infrastructures and their access policies; the page reports access rules, not rankings.
- Access policies and their outcomes.
- Accounts of barriers to access.
A cascade through interdependent networks.
A hazard footprint takes out co-located assets in every layer; fragmentation, dependency between layers and overload of the survivors then spread the failure. The 3D view separates the layers by depth. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows The contiguous United States; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Assets per layer
- 18
- Hazard footprint
- 8% of area
- Assets that depend on another layer
- 60%
- Spare capacity (tolerance)
- 30%
Readouts
- Assets hit by the hazard
- 9%
- Assets still working
- 9%
- Amplification of the initial damage
- 9.8 times
- Steps to settle
- 3
Numbers, methods and sources
| Step | Data centres working (%) | Networks working (%) | Power working (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 89 | 89 | 94 |
| 1 | 33 | 56 | 56 |
| 2 | 11 | 22 | 11 |
| 3 | 11 | 17 | 0 |
Methods
- Interdependent networks Buldyrev and others (2010), Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks, Nature 464
- Overload cascades Motter and Lai (2002), Physical Review E 66
- Betweenness load Brandes (2001), Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25
- Multilayer networks Kivela and others (2014), Journal of Complex Networks 2
- Infrastructure interdependencies Rinaldi, Peerenboom and Kelly (2001), IEEE Control Systems 21(6)
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page's map can draw:
- Major roads Natural Earth
- Railways Natural Earth
- Seaports Natural Earth
- Airports Natural Earth
- Urban extents Natural Earth
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band) NASA/NOAA VIIRS (Suomi NPP) · register nasa.gibs.context-live-layers
- Natural events (NASA EONET) NASA EONET · register nasa.eonet.events
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Data and Compute in Foundry
- Tested at Data and Compute in Universe
- Codified in Data and Evidence in Standards
- Published in Data and Compute in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Technology and Digital Systems in Academy
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access proposals received and granted | count and success rate | per call | Facility allocation records | Published statistics |
| Users by institution type and country income group | count | annual | Facility user records | OBSERVED |
| First-time users | percent of users | annual | Facility user records | OBSERVED |
| Training participants | count | annual | Training records | REPORTED |
| Research network bandwidth to institutions | gigabits per second | per assessment | Research and education network data | OBSERVED |
| Publications acknowledging facility use | count | annual | Bibliometric analysis | ESTIMATED |
Model research infrastructure access as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Digital, telecom and platforms: the hazards it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Choose the components, pick an initiating hazard and step through the cascade. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every coupling weight is a stated assumption you can change. A teaching model, not a forecast, an assessment or a certification. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Sea-ice loss
- Coastal erosion (set off downstream)
- Biodiversity loss (set off downstream)
- Arctic winter sea-ice collapse (set off downstream)
- Polar vortex disruption (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
- Digital, telecom and platforms
- Energy utilities and grids Coupling
- Media and information Coupling
- Finance, insurance and capital markets Coupling
- Defence and civil protection Coupling
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-12Software, model and AI/ML artefacts (supply chain, model cards, dataset sheets)NRS-H86Hazard family: Telecom and data-centre failure (NHS-1 infra.digital)NRS-H54Hazard family: Signal and platform disruption (NHS-1 cyber.platform)NRS-H93Hazard family: Identity, trust and cryptographic failure (NHS-1 cyber.identity)NRS-H94Hazard family: Systemic cyber events (NHS-1 cyber.systemic-cyber)NRS-T8Software and supply-chain integrity riskNRS-X6Cyber and digital security risk
Observation
- ITU DataHub ICT indicators (listed for reference)
- World Development Indicators (listed for reference)
- WMO Alert Hub and Register of Alerting Authorities (listed for reference)
- Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology
- Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, by speed
- Individuals using the Internet (% of population)
- Number of people per 100,000 that are covered by early warning information through local governments or through national dissemination mechanisms
Example geography
- North America: 243 hexagonal cells
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
- Vegetation disturbance alerts, 30 m (OPERA DIST-ALERT), NASA GIBS
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| ESFRI roadmap and access policies | European research infrastructures and their access rules | Public, EU terms |
| European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures | Principles for access modes and policies | Public, EU terms |
| EuroHPC and national HPC allocation statistics | Proposals, allocations and users | Public records, terms per body |
| GÉANT and regional research and education network reports | Connectivity of research institutions | Public, terms per network |
| OECD Global Science Forum reports on research infrastructures | International access and governance practice | Public, OECD terms |
How research infrastructure access is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
Datasets and provenance
The data classes behind research infrastructure access and what is recorded about each before it is used.
| Data class | Provenance recorded | Resolution stated | Licence checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satellite imagery, optical and radar | sensor, processing level, acquisition date | pixel size and revisit | per scene |
| Reanalysis and climate model output | model, experiment, member, version | grid and time step | per release |
| In-situ sensors and gauges | station, instrument, calibration record | point and sampling rate | per network |
| Population and asset exposure | method, vintage, input sources | cell size and unit | per release |
| Boundaries and reference geography | producer, edition, date | scale | per edition |
- Lineage
- W3C PROV record from source to figure
- Principles
- FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable
- Gaps
- shown as missing, never filled silently
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Data and Compute prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Research infrastructure operators | How to design access policies and user support | Policy reviews; user analyses |
| Research funders | How to fund access for under-served researchers | Diversity and training evidence |
| Regional research networks | Where connectivity limits access | Bandwidth evidence |
Outputs this topic produces
- Access policy reviews against the European Charter and peer practice
- User diversity analyses by institution and country
- Training and support gap assessments
- Federated access design notes
What experts ask about access.
- Who can use a facility, on what terms, and how are competing requests weighed?
- How are operating costs covered over a facility's lifetime, not only its construction?
- Do researchers in lower-income countries and smaller institutions have meaningful access?
- What skills and support do users need to make good use of the facility?
- How are data produced at a facility preserved and shared after a project ends?
- How should access be prioritised during an emergency, when urgent public-interest workloads compete with planned research?
What shapes access.
Access is shaped as much by everything around a facility as by the facility itself. Network connectivity, local skills, support staff and the time needed to prepare a competitive proposal all decide who can actually use capacity that is nominally open to all.
Lifetime funding
Construction is often funded once, while operation, staff and upgrades need sustained budgets.
Peer review and priority
Merit-based allocation is common, but it can favour established groups with experience writing proposals.
Skills and support
Access without training, software and support produces little benefit.
How access is studied.
- 01
Usage and allocation analysis
Studying who uses facilities and for what. Limits: data is held by operators and not always shared.
- 02
Cost modelling
Estimating full lifetime costs with optimisation and operations research. Limits: depends on future energy and staff costs.
- 03
Comparative governance review
Comparing access policies across facilities and countries. Limits: contexts differ widely.
- 04
Readiness mapping
Describing what capacity and skills a research community has and needs, the basis of compute readiness maps. Limits: self-reported data can be uneven.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
- 01High-performance, cloud and edge computingWorkload characterisation · Porting codes to new architectures · Hybrid cloud and HPC workflowsApplied here
- 02Data engineering, interoperability and stewardshipFAIR data assessment · Interoperable catalogues · Data quality pipelinesApplied here
- 03Optimisation and operations researchJob scheduling policies · Carbon-aware workload shifting · Capacity planningApplied here
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
What is a research infrastructure?
How is access to supercomputers decided?
What is federated identity?
Can I apply for facility access through the platform?
Why does operating cost matter so much?
Does open access mean free access?
Contribute evidence from this page.
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