User Prerequisites

Can I Use Nero GCP?

1. Research must be Stanford-led

Nero is available to any Stanford researcher who has Principal Investigator (PI) privileges or who is part of a team led by a Stanford PI.

Note: External collaborators, or users without a SUNet ID, can be sponsored by a PI and get a full sponsored account, with SUNet ID and Stanford email. Please see the sponsorship page for more information.

2. Data must be high-risk

Nero is exclusively available for research using high-risk data.

If your project does not involve high-risk data, Stanford Research Computing has robust research computing options for low- and moderate-risk data.

3. A Data Risk Assessment must be completed

Each new data set brought into the Nero environment will undergo a Data Risk Assessment. Stanford’s Information Security Office (ISO) and the University Privacy Office (UPO) evaluate projects based on all applicable security and privacy laws and regulations as well as University policy. Once the DRA is approved, the data set can be brought on the Nero platform.

Note: The DRA requirement does not apply if the project only uses data from the Stanford Medicine Research Data Repository (STARR) or Population Health Sciences (PHS), which are already covered by a DRA

4. A Stanford Project Task Award (PTA) must be supplied for billing

Stanford will bill the cost of your Google Cloud Platform usage to your PTA. Pricing reflects Stanford’s substantial discount.

SRCC has experts and tools available to help you minimize your compute costs.

Submit a Request for Nero Account

To request a Nero Cloud account, kindly submit the following form:

Order Nero GCP

For adding new members to an existing Nero project, the sponsoring Stanford faculty member (Principle Investigator, PI) should email srcc-support@stanford.edu, specifying the names and SUNet IDs of his/her research team members needing an account.

Nero is open to the Stanford community as a computing resource to support departmental or sponsored research, thus a faculty member’s explicit consent is required for account requests. We will periodically ensure that all accounts associated with each PI are still active, and reserve the right to close any Nero account whose SUNet ID is expired.