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 all compute services and 14% for all S3 storage.
How a Researcher Initiates an AWS Research Environment 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 program. 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
The researcher also must provide a Purchase Order to which Four Points will bill AWS usage monthly. Does Yale require a quote in order to create the PO? Four Points can supply this. How does the department’s Business Manager contact Four Points to do this?
How do we communicate with 4Points to know if the application is accepted?
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. Then we turn this over to YCRC? We don’t have a turnover meeting with the researcher?
AWS Billing Under STRIDES
Four Points sends a monthly invoice to be paid against the PO that the researcher specified.
AWS Reporting Under STRIDES
Four Points handles the reporting required by NIH. What are these requirements? Exactly what will Four Points do?
Communication
During the life of the account, who communicates with Four Points? E.g., how does the researcher request the TAM?
Closing an AWS Account Under STRIDES
As long as Four Point can continue to bill for the usage for the account, it will stay active and continue to get STRIDES discounts and the Enterprise Support (if STRIDES is offering to pay for Enterprise Support at that time). If the account will be used by different research project, Four Points will report the change to NIH.
What is the process for closing the account?