NIH STRIDES at Yale
- Sandy Bouton (Unlicensed)
- Jason Ignatius
About the NIH STRIDES Initiative
As described on the NIH STRIDES website, the NIH Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative allows NIH to explore the use of cloud environments to streamline NIH data use by partnering with commercial providers.
NIH-funded researchers with an active NIH award may take advantage of the STRIDES Initiative for their NIH-funded research projects. Eligible investigators include awardees of NIH contracts, other transaction agreements, grants, cooperative agreements, and other agreements.
Benefits of using the STRIDES Initiative as a vehicle to access STRIDES Initiative partners include:
Discounts on STRIDES Initiative partner services—Favorable pricing on computing, storage, and related cloud services for NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) and NIH-funded institutions.
Professional services—Access to professional service consultations and technical support from the STRIDES Initiative partners.
Training—Access to training for researchers, data owners, and others to help ensure optimal use of available tools and technologies.
Potential collaborative engagements—Opportunities to explore methods and approaches that may advance NIH’s biomedical research objectives (with scope and milestones of engagements agreed upon separately).
NIH STRIDES at Yale
As an NIH-funded institution, Yale has established relationships with suppliers able to enroll researchers with NIH grants in the STRIDES Initiative to use either Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
NIH STRIDES for AWS
Yale has established a relationship with Four Points Technology to provision NIH funded research under STRIDES for the AWS cloud. The STRIDES program for AWS provides a 9% discount for AWS services (except Marketplace services).
How a Researcher Initiates an AWS Account Under STRIDES
YCRC staff work with the researcher to fill out the web form https://www.4points.com/nih-strides-initiative/nih-strides-extramural-research-program-account-provisioning/ which Four Points will present to NIH for approval in the STRIDES Initiative. The information below is needed to complete the form:
Short Title of the NIH funded research project which AWS account used for
Award/Grant number – Derived from NIH Notice of Award, uniquely identifies NIH-funded research projects
Administering NIH Institute or Center – Derived from Notice of Award
NIH Program Official Names and email - Derived from Notice of Award
Keywords - List of terms describing scientific area(s), technologies, and/or conditions relevant to research project
Scientific and Technical POCs (name and email address)
AWS account # if you have an existing account to transfer
Based on a quote provided by Four Points, the researcher provides a Purchase Order to which Four Points will bill AWS usage monthly.
AWS Account Creation Under STRIDES
YCRC staff and the ITS Cloud Support team meet with the researcher to understand the researcher’s AWS use case and requirements. The Cloud Support team creates an AWS account in Four Points' AWS Organization for Yale. YCRC staff and the Cloud Support team meet with the researcher to review and handover the account.
Four Points will provide their introductory document (STRIDES Initiative Configuration Guide) which includes information on the next steps after account provisioning, support (including best practices for operating in the cloud) and training options.
AWS Billing Under STRIDES
Four Points sends a monthly invoice the the researcher’s department to be paid against the PO that the researcher created.
AWS Reporting Under STRIDES
Four Points handles the reporting required by NIH, sending monthly reports including services used and billed cost. Four Points also sends a monthly report to the researcher and, optionally to others as requested.
AWS Enterprise Support
The researcher may initiate support requests to AWS by via the Support icon in the upper right of the AWS console. Also Four Points provides an introductory document (STRIDES Initiative Configuration Guide) that includes how to leverage the features of AWS Enterprise Support, including how to email the AWS Technical Account Manager (TAM) (aws-tam-nih@amazon.com).
Closing an AWS Account Under STRIDES
When the grant has ended, the researcher may optionally keep the data in the STRIDES AWS account. As long as Four Point can continue to bill for the usage, the account will stay active and continue to get STRIDES discounts and the Enterprise Support (if NIH is offering to pay for Enterprise Support at that time). If the account will be used by different NIH funded research project, Four Points will report the change to NIH.
The researcher may request to close the account by sending email to cloud.support@yale.edu.
NIH STRIDES for GCP
Yae has established a relationship with Burwood Group to provision NIH funded research under STRIDES for the GCP cloud. The STRIDES program for GCP provides a 10-25% discount for many GCP services.
How a Researcher Initiates a GCP Project Under STRIDES
A YCRC staff member collects the information below from the researcher:
NIH Strides Grant Number
GCP Project Name / Project ID
Primary Contact Name
Primary Contact Email
Billing Admin Name
Billing Admin Email
Billing COA
The italicized fields are derived from the NIH Notice of Award.
GCP Project Creation Under STRIDES
YCRC staff and the ITS Cloud Support team meet with the researcher to understand the researcher’s GCP use case and requirements. The budget for the project, budget alert thresholds and how billing is handled once the budget is reached are also discussed.
The Cloud Support team creates the project in Yale’s GCP Organization and configures billing and budget alerts in Burwood Group’s billing portal.
YCRC staff and the Cloud Support team meet with the researcher to review and handover the researcher’s GCP environment.
GCP Billing Under STRIDES
ITS receives a monthly bills from Burwood and does a monthly transfer to the COA for the researcher’s NIH grant.
GCP Reporting Under STRIDES
Burwood Group handles the reporting required by NIH, sending monthly reports including services used and billed cost. [Do they send a copy to the researcher?]
Closing a GCP Project Under STRIDES
When the grant budget has been spent or the grant has ended, the disposition of the project depends on how billing for the project has been configured in the Burwood portal. This is initially set based on discussion with the researcher at the turnover meeting when the project is created. Billing for the project can be set to either (1) be billed to a different COA, or (2) be suspended. If suspended, the project will automatically be disconnected from the Burwood billing account and the researcher will have 30 days to work with the Cloud Support team (cloud.support@yale.edu) to setup new billing before Google will automatically delete the project. Burwood will send reminder emails to the project users (typically the project owners) listed in the Burwood portal.
Prior to the grant budget being spent or the grant ending, the researcher may request to close the project by sending email to cloud.support@yale.edu.