New project · In development
One browser-based lab across the nation's research systems.
A unified environment connecting researchers, educators, and students to interactive computing and data across five NSF-supported NAIRR and ACCESS sites and two cloud platforms.
National reach
Five research sites
NSF-supported NAIRR and ACCESS sites, brought into one interactive environment.
Elastic cloud
Two cloud providers
Two commercial cloud providers, to be selected, for elastic, hybrid work.
One data layer
Shared data across resources
A common data layer so datasets can be used where they live.
FAIR outputs
FAIR apps & publications
A consistent application catalog and short-term, FAIR-aligned publishing.
The gap iDLab addresses
One interactive front door to the nation's research systems.
Research increasingly depends on interactive, data-intensive, and AI-enabled work — rapid iteration across large datasets. iDLab brings these powerful NSF-supported systems together in a single, browser-based environment, adding a consistent interactive layer on top of the resources researchers already rely on — so more people can reach them, and reach them more easily.
What it is
A single, browser-based environment for interactive computing, a consistent application catalog, and shared data access across participating ACCESS and NAIRR systems and clouds.
What it will provide
Exploration where the data already lives, one sign-in across facilities, collaborative workspaces, and short-term FAIR publishing of results.
What it is not
Not a long-term archive, and not a replacement for the sites it builds on — iDLab extends NSF cyberinfrastructure rather than duplicating it.
iDLab advances OneSciencePlace from a pilot toward a national-scale service. This is the start of that work: integration, testing, and a structured early-user phase come first, with continuous operation to follow.
What the platform offers
Interactive work, from one place.
A web interface designed so newcomers and power users alike can reach advanced systems without site-specific setup.
Interactive sessions
Launch GPU- and CPU-backed interactive applications in the browser — for analysis, visualization, modeling, and AI/ML development.
Consistent app catalog
A unified set of interactive tools — including Jupyter, RStudio, and visualization and analytics apps — deployed the same way across sites.
Cross-site data access
A shared data layer aims to give near–real-time access to distributed datasets, reducing manual staging and redundant copies.
Collaborative workspaces
Shared project spaces with role-based access, so teams can organize data, applications, and provenance for reproducible science.
Short-term FAIR publishing
Publish datasets, workflows, and apps with FAIR-aligned metadata and persistent identifiers — for sharing and reuse, not long-term archival.
Federated identity
One sign-in through CILogon and Globus Auth, mapped to site accounts so access stays consistent and secure across facilities.
Where iDLab runs
Five sites, two clouds, one environment.
iDLab integrates with each site's local policies and adds project-dedicated interactive resources. Each site keeps full operational control of its systems.
Purdue
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
PSC
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Pittsburgh, PA
NCSA
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Urbana-Champaign, IL
SDSC
San Diego Supercomputer Center
UC San Diego, CA
TACC
Texas Advanced Computing Center
UT Austin, TX
Cloud
Two cloud providers
To be selected
The research data lifecycle
From ingestion to short-term publication.
iDLab is built around the work researchers actually do — bringing data in, organizing it, exploring it, sharing it, and publishing results for reuse.
1
Ingest
Upload, generate from simulations, or move data in via Globus and the shared layer.
2
Organize
Shared workspaces hold data, apps, and job provenance.
3
Explore
Interactive sessions support iterative, human-in-the-loop work.
4
Share
Role-based access enables secure team science across institutions.
5
Publish
Short-term, FAIR-aligned outputs with persistent identifiers.
iDLab supports short-term publication for sharing and reuse — it is not a long-term archive. At project end, data can move to domain or institutional repositories.
Powering discovery & learning
Built for data-intensive, interactive research.
iDLab supports fields where interactive analysis across large, distributed datasets is essential — giving researchers a faster, more hands-on way to work with the systems that hold their data. A few representative areas:
Engineering
Natural hazards engineering
Earthquake simulation and seismic hazard modeling, with cross-site access to high-fidelity rupture and ground-shaking data.
Life sciences
Spatial biology
Tissue and cellular imaging at unprecedented scale, with interactive tools to evaluate, annotate, and prepare data for AI.
Neuroscience
Brain imaging & signals
AI-driven analysis of imaging and signal data, with computation placed alongside the datasets it depends on.
Geosciences
Geospatial analytics
Mapping and spatial AI for extreme-event response and resilience, on dedicated GPUs and a unified data layer.
Education
University courses
Hands-on computational learning for STEM students in ready-to-use, browser-based environments — beyond notebooks alone.
For the whole community
These are just a few examples. iDLab is built for the broad science and education community — not only the fields shown above.
From cryo-EM and computational physics to digital agriculture, nuclear engineering, and university classrooms — wherever interactive, data-first work happens, iDLab is meant to support it.
Get involved
Help shape iDLab from the start.
We're inviting researchers, educators, and resource partners to follow the project and take part in early testing as iDLab comes online. If your work depends on interactive analysis and distributed data, we'd like to hear from you.