NIH aims to improve access to cloud computing

Photo by Darren Baker

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is attempting to improve biomedical researchers’ access to cloud computing.

With its new STRIDES* initiative, the NIH intends to establish partnerships with commercial cloud service providers (CSPs) to reduce economic and technological barriers to accessing and computing on large biomedical data sets.

The CSPs will work with the NIH and its funded researchers to develop and test new ways to make large data sets and associated computational tools available to wider audiences.

The NIH’s initial efforts with the STRIDES initiative will focus on making NIH high-value data sets more accessible through the cloud, leveraging partnerships with CSPs to take advantage of data-related innovations such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, and experimenting with new ways to optimize technology-intensive research.

The goals of the STRIDES initiative are to:

• Support researchers’ transition to conducting biomedical research using commercial cloud technologies through cost-effective storage and computing arrangements with CSPs
• Provide NIH researchers access to and training on new and emerging cloud-based tools and services
• Facilitate researchers’ access to and use of high-value NIH research data that are currently stored on, or will be moved into, cloud environments
• Enable the formation of an interconnected ecosystem that breaks down silos related to generating, analyzing, and sharing research data.

The NIH has already partnered with Google Cloud for the STRIDES initiative, but the agency hopes to create partnerships with other CSPs as well.

“NIH is in a unique position to bring together academic and innovation industry partners to create a biomedical data ecosystem that maximizes the use of NIH-supported biomedical research data for the greatest benefit to human health,” said NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD.

The NIH says its agreement with Google Cloud creates a cost-efficient framework for NIH researchers, as well as researchers receiving NIH support, to make use of Google Cloud’s storage, computing, and machine learning technologies.

The partnership will also enable the creation of training programs for researchers at NIH-funded institutions on how to use the Google Cloud platform. And the partnership will involve collaboration with NIH’s Data Commons Pilot—a group of projects testing new tools and methods for working with and sharing data in the cloud.

“Through our partnership with NIH, we are bringing the power of data and the cloud to the biomedical research community globally,” said Gregory Moore, MD, PhD, vice-president of healthcare at Google Cloud.

“Together, we are making it easier for scientists and physicians to access and garner insights from NIH-funded data sets with appropriate privacy protections, which will ultimately accelerate biomedical research progress toward finding treatments and cures for the most devastating diseases of our time.”

A central tenet of STRIDES is that data made available through these partnerships will incorporate standards endorsed by the biomedical research community to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

*Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability

Photo by Darren Baker

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is attempting to improve biomedical researchers’ access to cloud computing.

With its new STRIDES* initiative, the NIH intends to establish partnerships with commercial cloud service providers (CSPs) to reduce economic and technological barriers to accessing and computing on large biomedical data sets.

The CSPs will work with the NIH and its funded researchers to develop and test new ways to make large data sets and associated computational tools available to wider audiences.

The NIH’s initial efforts with the STRIDES initiative will focus on making NIH high-value data sets more accessible through the cloud, leveraging partnerships with CSPs to take advantage of data-related innovations such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, and experimenting with new ways to optimize technology-intensive research.

The goals of the STRIDES initiative are to:

• Support researchers’ transition to conducting biomedical research using commercial cloud technologies through cost-effective storage and computing arrangements with CSPs
• Provide NIH researchers access to and training on new and emerging cloud-based tools and services
• Facilitate researchers’ access to and use of high-value NIH research data that are currently stored on, or will be moved into, cloud environments
• Enable the formation of an interconnected ecosystem that breaks down silos related to generating, analyzing, and sharing research data.

The NIH has already partnered with Google Cloud for the STRIDES initiative, but the agency hopes to create partnerships with other CSPs as well.

“NIH is in a unique position to bring together academic and innovation industry partners to create a biomedical data ecosystem that maximizes the use of NIH-supported biomedical research data for the greatest benefit to human health,” said NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD.

The NIH says its agreement with Google Cloud creates a cost-efficient framework for NIH researchers, as well as researchers receiving NIH support, to make use of Google Cloud’s storage, computing, and machine learning technologies.

The partnership will also enable the creation of training programs for researchers at NIH-funded institutions on how to use the Google Cloud platform. And the partnership will involve collaboration with NIH’s Data Commons Pilot—a group of projects testing new tools and methods for working with and sharing data in the cloud.

“Through our partnership with NIH, we are bringing the power of data and the cloud to the biomedical research community globally,” said Gregory Moore, MD, PhD, vice-president of healthcare at Google Cloud.

“Together, we are making it easier for scientists and physicians to access and garner insights from NIH-funded data sets with appropriate privacy protections, which will ultimately accelerate biomedical research progress toward finding treatments and cures for the most devastating diseases of our time.”

A central tenet of STRIDES is that data made available through these partnerships will incorporate standards endorsed by the biomedical research community to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

*Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability

Photo by Darren Baker

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is attempting to improve biomedical researchers’ access to cloud computing.

With its new STRIDES* initiative, the NIH intends to establish partnerships with commercial cloud service providers (CSPs) to reduce economic and technological barriers to accessing and computing on large biomedical data sets.

The CSPs will work with the NIH and its funded researchers to develop and test new ways to make large data sets and associated computational tools available to wider audiences.

The NIH’s initial efforts with the STRIDES initiative will focus on making NIH high-value data sets more accessible through the cloud, leveraging partnerships with CSPs to take advantage of data-related innovations such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, and experimenting with new ways to optimize technology-intensive research.

The goals of the STRIDES initiative are to:

• Support researchers’ transition to conducting biomedical research using commercial cloud technologies through cost-effective storage and computing arrangements with CSPs
• Provide NIH researchers access to and training on new and emerging cloud-based tools and services
• Facilitate researchers’ access to and use of high-value NIH research data that are currently stored on, or will be moved into, cloud environments
• Enable the formation of an interconnected ecosystem that breaks down silos related to generating, analyzing, and sharing research data.

The NIH has already partnered with Google Cloud for the STRIDES initiative, but the agency hopes to create partnerships with other CSPs as well.

“NIH is in a unique position to bring together academic and innovation industry partners to create a biomedical data ecosystem that maximizes the use of NIH-supported biomedical research data for the greatest benefit to human health,” said NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD.

The NIH says its agreement with Google Cloud creates a cost-efficient framework for NIH researchers, as well as researchers receiving NIH support, to make use of Google Cloud’s storage, computing, and machine learning technologies.

The partnership will also enable the creation of training programs for researchers at NIH-funded institutions on how to use the Google Cloud platform. And the partnership will involve collaboration with NIH’s Data Commons Pilot—a group of projects testing new tools and methods for working with and sharing data in the cloud.

“Through our partnership with NIH, we are bringing the power of data and the cloud to the biomedical research community globally,” said Gregory Moore, MD, PhD, vice-president of healthcare at Google Cloud.

“Together, we are making it easier for scientists and physicians to access and garner insights from NIH-funded data sets with appropriate privacy protections, which will ultimately accelerate biomedical research progress toward finding treatments and cures for the most devastating diseases of our time.”

A central tenet of STRIDES is that data made available through these partnerships will incorporate standards endorsed by the biomedical research community to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

*Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability