The National Institutes of Health (NIH) STRIDES Initiative, one of many NIH-wide efforts to implement the NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science, is designed to enhance biomedical discovery and improve efficiency through new digital data management strategies that contribute to NIH efforts to develop and sustain a modern biomedical data ecosystem.
Through partnerships with commercial cloud providers, the STRIDES Initiative provides a cost-effective way for biomedical researchers at NIH-funded institutions to access rich datasets and the most advanced computational infrastructure, tools, and services provided by STRIDES Initiative partners. The overall goal of the initiative is to accelerate biomedical advances by reducing economic and technological barriers for accessing data and resources.
NIH-funded biomedical researchers are eligible to leverage the STRIDES Initiative to access cutting-edge cloud services and tools, which includes access to favorable pricing on industry-leading commercial cloud environments from STRIDES Initiative partners, such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. In addition to the broad catalog of cloud services, NIH-funded researchers have access to consulting resources, training, and billing assistance to facilitate data computation, storage, sharing, analysis, and sustainability.
The following documents can help decision-makers determine whether the STRIDES Initiative is right for their institutions:
NIH and the STRIDES Initiative partners have dedicated teams to help institutions decide whether and how this service can benefit their NIH-funded researchers. Additional resources and support are available to help move through the onboarding process smoothly. STRIDES Initiative partners will also work with institutions directly to get set up to use cloud services and tools.
If you have questions or would like more information on how to get started, please contact the NIH STRIDES Initiative team at STRIDES@nih.gov. They can help connect you with the points of contact for AWS and Google Cloud and provide you with the most relevant materials to help you get onboarded smoothly with the STRIDES Initiative.