Complete the Prerequisites
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. Teams must complete a Data Risk Assessment
Unless researchers are using data from the Stanford Medicine Research Data Repository (STARR) or Population Health Sciences (PHS), which are already covered by a DRA, they must complete a Data Risk Assessment, for each new data set brought into the Nero environment. Stanford 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 dataset can be brought on the Nero platform.
3. Data must be high-risk
Nero is exclusively available for research on high-risk data, or data combined with high-risk data. The DRA determination usually helps identify whether the data are high-risk, in case there are doubts. Make sure to check SRCC’s website to view research computing options for low and moderate risk data.
4. A Project Task Award (PTA) if using Nero Cloud
Nero On-Premise account are fully subsidized by the Stanford School of Medicine until August 2020. After that, SRCC will transition to a cost-recovery model and the associated fee structure will be communicated as soon as it becomes available. Nero Cloud comes at a cost for storage and compute on Google Cloud. Just like for any GCP project, a payment method (in this case a Stanford PTA) is requested to create a Nero GCP project. An overview of GCP-related costs can be found here. [link to a cost page, from Nero team or elsewhere]
Submit a Request for Nero Account
To request a Nero Cloud account, kindly submit the following form:
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.