Getting started

How to get on board

This page elaborates on the procedure described on Virtual Research Environments (VREs) on the UU website.

There are several situations that may apply to you:

  1. My project team is currently not using Research cloud and I want to start on Research cloud
    Start here

  2. Someone in my project team is already using Research cloud and I need access
    Start here

  3. I think Research Cloud is interesting for my current project but I am not sure
    Start here

Onboarding procedure

This is a flowchart describing the Onboarding procedure for new projects, find descriptions of the steps below the flowchart.

flowchart TD
  A[1. Intake meeting] --> B{Onboarding}
  B -- budget --> C{3. Request credits}
  C --> F[UU credits via Intake meeting]
  C --> G[Small Compute application]
  C --> H[Project budget]
  B -- account --> D[2. Create collaboration in SRAM]
  D ----> E[4. Log in on Research Cloud]
  F --> E[4. Log in on Research Cloud]
  G --> E[4. Log in on Research Cloud]
  H --> E[4. Log in on Research Cloud]
  E --> J[Create your first workspace!]

1. Plan an intake with the Research Engineering team

During a 30 minute online meeting we will discuss the requirements for you research project and discuss the following topics:

  • The appropriate solution. RDM Support will help you determine which solution will meet the requirements of your research.
  • The required configuration. RDM Support will discuss the software and configuration that your research needs and how we can help you make your own software or scripts available.
  • Other requirements. RDM Support can consult on related needs, such as research data management, to facilitate a complete and integral solution for your research.
  • Funding arrangements. The VRE costs are covered on a pay-per-use basis. If you do not have a budget available, RDM Support can help you apply for “SURFsara credits” to get you started for a limited time. We can also help you with applying for more credits via SURF and NWO.

The Research engineer who is doing the intake has experience with the systems and can quickly assess your needs when looking together at your software. The engineer will advice you about how to proceed. When Research cloud meets the technical requirements of your project, we will arrange administration that is necessary to get started directly during the intake.

Schedule an intake meeting.

During the intake meeting an end date for your VRE’s project account (called a Collaboration or “CO”) will be agreed, after which you will loose access to it. You will be notified 10 days prior to the agreed end date, and you can always request that the lifetime of the CO be extended by contacting us.

2. Request a collaboration in SRAM

This will be done for you by the UU support team after intake meeting (step 1).

SRAM (SURF Research Access Management) is a service to manage access to research resources, intended for Dutch led research collaborations. More information.

A Collaboration (also known as Collaborative Organisation, or CO) is an ad-hoc group of people who are allowed to work together by sharing resources. As a scientist you can easily make a CO. That way, you can invite other researchers to join your efforts in Research Cloud, and you can then self-organise yourselves to distribute tasks, including administering the CO. More information.

3. Request funding

There are several ways to request funding for credits:

UU Budget This is typically granted during an intake meeting (see step 1 above).

Small Compute application Via a Small Compute application (SURF) 50.000 CPU hours and/or 5.000 GPU hours can be requested for your project for 1 calendar year. A Small Compute application can be done one time per calendar year. The application procedure is relatively simple and fast. More information. Most users first use the UU budget before they submit a Small compute application.

Large Compute application A Large Compute application can done if you require more resources than provided via the Small compute application. More information.

Project budget It is possible to pay for credits via your own project budget. Discuss the possiblities during an intake meeting (see step 1 above).

4. Log in to Research cloud

After your collaboration and your budget (aka wallet) have been created you can start working with Research Cloud!

The url of the Research cloud portal is: surfresearchcloud.nl, or click the link below to go to the portal.

Research Cloud portal

Add collaborators to existing project

When you want to onboard new project member in Research cloud you should think about the rights you want to grant them:

Perform step 1 below

Perform step 1 and 2 below

Perform step 1, 2(optional), and 3

1. Invite a new collaborator

SRAM is used for access management for SURF Research Cloud. It is possible to invite collaborators to your collaboration (project)

It is possible to invite anyone who has an email address to join your project. Students and employees from most Universities (and Universities of Applied Sciences) will be able to login to SRAM using their institution credentials. Collaborators from abroad or e.g. private sector can create an eduID first and then use that to login to SRAM and accept the invitation.

2. Workspace admins

In SRAM there are groups that can be used to grant members of your collaboration to the right to pause, resume and delete workspaces

3. Share your wallet

In SRAM there are groups that can be used to grant members of your collaboration to the right to create new workspaces using the wallet of your project

Next

When your collaboration and wallet is ready, see this page for first steps.