iDLab is in active development. These answers reflect where the project is today and what it's being built to do; details will be filled in as the platform comes online. If you don't find what you're looking for, join the interest list and ask.
We don't have an answer to that yet. Try a different word — or join the interest list and ask the team directly.
About iDLab
iDLab — the Interactive Discovery Laboratory — is a browser-based environment that brings interactive computing and data together across the nation's research systems. It's designed so researchers, educators, and students can launch interactive tools and work with data without managing the underlying infrastructure. iDLab is in active development.
Working with data and computation hands-on and iteratively — notebooks, analysis and visualization apps, and other interactive tools in the browser — rather than only submitting batch jobs from a command line.
Not yet. iDLab is in active development and will onboard early users in phases. The best way to hear when access opens is to join the interest list.
iDLab is built on OneSciencePlace, a research cyberinfrastructure platform that provides its gateway and integration layer.
Who it's for
Researchers, educators, and students who work with interactive, data-intensive, and AI-enabled computing. We'll invite early users in phases as the platform develops.
Yes — supporting education and coursework is a core goal. Educators interested in using iDLab in the classroom are encouraged to express interest now so we can involve them as classroom support takes shape.
Fields where interactive analysis across large, distributed datasets matters — for example earthquake and natural-hazards modeling, biology, neuroscience, and geoscience. iDLab is designed to be broadly applicable across data-intensive domains.
No — any US researcher, educator, or student may use the iDLab platform.
A web browser and a research or institutional identity — there's nothing to install locally. iDLab runs in the browser.
iDLab is a project supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Details about participating in the early-user phase will be shared with participants as onboarding begins.
Interactive computing environments such as notebooks and analysis and visualization apps, all reachable in the browser. The catalog will grow as iDLab develops, with pathways for teams to add their own tools over time.
Resources & data
iDLab adds an interactive layer on top of established, NSF-supported research systems and cloud resources, so you can reach them through one consistent environment rather than several separate ones.
iDLab works across five national research centers — NCSA, PSC, Purdue, SDSC, and TACC — and two cloud providers, to be selected.
iDLab is designed to give interactive access to data where it lives on connected systems. The specifics of data handling are being finalized and will be documented as the platform comes online.
iDLab is designed around FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable — to help make research outputs well-documented and reusable.
Security and privacy are core design priorities. Specific policies will be published as the platform approaches general availability.
Project & partners
iDLab adds a unified, interactive way to reach these systems; each center keeps full operational control of its own resources. iDLab extends NSF cyberinfrastructure rather than duplicating it.
No. iDLab complements them — it offers one interactive front door to systems researchers already rely on.
iDLab adds an interactive layer and a shared data environment on top of participating NSF-supported systems, which continue to be operated by their centers.
iDLab is led by UCLA, in collaboration with NCSA, PSC, Purdue, SDSC, and TACC, and is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under the Integrated Data Systems and Services (IDSS) program, Award #2609583.
Get involved
Join the interest list. We welcome researchers, educators, students, and potential collaborators.