National allocations
Federal programs provide compute, GPUs, and cloud/LLM credits to faculty PIs at no cost. Start with an NSF ACCESS account — it also logs you into the NAIRR portal.
Programs
Section titled “Programs”NSF ACCESS
Section titled “NSF ACCESS”Allocations on national supercomputers and GPU systems (the XSEDE successor). The Explore tier is a fast, low-barrier start. https://access-ci.org
NAIRR Pilot
Section titled “NAIRR Pilot”AI compute, cloud credits, and commercial LLM API credits (Anthropic, OpenAI), plus datasets. Logs in with an ACCESS ID. Still a pilot — treat long-term availability as unsettled. https://nairrpilot.org
DOE / Argonne (ALCF)
Section titled “DOE / Argonne (ALCF)”Leadership HPC and novel AI accelerators, open to academics — start with the Director’s Discretionary program. https://www.alcf.anl.gov
Testbeds
Section titled “Testbeds”Reconfigurable bare metal you can reserve: Chameleon (national), FABRIC, and CloudLab.