What is the Research Computing Core?

The Research Computing (RC) Core is a set of billable services provided by Research Computing and HMS IT.  The goal of the RC Core is to promote deeper collaboration across the greater Harvard biomedical research ecosystem.  This includes improved capabilities and performance by establishing more transparent and sustainable IT services for our research community.

Why was the RC Core created?

The continued growth in the demand particularly for high performance computing resources has exceeded our capacity to support the current and future needs of our research community, creating resource contention that adversely affects research progress and academic progress for graduate students and postdocs.

Our analysis has also led us to the conclusion that establishing a cost sharing model is warranted, in line with practices at many HMS affiliated institutions. Also, Harvard University is asking HMS to comply with a new university-wide Research Computing policy to define and publish consistent Research Computing services and fees for all Harvard Schools and external users at HMS-affiliated institutions. The HMS Finance Department has determined that it is appropriate to charge fees for projects whose grant funding, and grant overhead, flows to institutions other than Harvard Medical School.

How to get started with the RC Core?

If you are interested in utilizing services from the HMS Research Computing Core, you will need to first register for an account. Please visit PPMS RC Core system to start the signup process.  Lab PI must also register via the PPMS system, attest to RC Core policies, and provide a purchase order before access is granted. Additional detailed step by step instructions.

Harvard Sponsored Role (HSR) requirement:

If you are a non-employee, non-student, and non-academic appointment holder at Harvard University, HMS requires the RC Core to submit an HSR request to sponsor your relationship with the university.  Details about the Harvard Sponsored Role Policy.  In addition, as an HMS RC Core user, you must sign our RC Core user agreement before you can access our systems. Our HMS O2 cluster and storage service are available to external researchers who are active employees at an HMS Affiliate institution, who must provide an email address with the associated  HMS Affiliate institution. If a member of your lab leaves the  HMS Affiliate institution and has access to our cluster or storage, you must notify the RC Core immediately at rccore@hms.harvard.edu so we can update our records and remove access.

HMS IT External Use of HPC Resources Policy:

Contact Us

If you have questions or seek more information about the RC Core or its services, or have a question about invoices or other business questions, please contact: rccore@hms.harvard.edu

If you need help or support in using our services, please contact: rchelp@hms.harvard.edu

Research Computing will be providing the following billable services via the RC Core:

  • High Performance Computing:
    • The O2 Cluster, which accommodates diverse requirements and workflows for HMS-affiliated researchers.
  • Storage Options:
    • Active – intended for storing research data that is frequently accessed, modified, or computed against which includes Compute and Collaborations storage solutions.
    • Standby - is leveraged for infrequently accessed data that is still directly available for reference, retrieval, or analysis.
  • Fee-Based Scientific Software:
    • The software listed below is available to anyone working at Harvard University (faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students) working for laboratories or departments that are located at Harvard University and have a Harvard 33-digit billing code for their group. Additional software information is available on the Software rates page.
      • BioRender
      • FlowJo
      • GraphPad Prism
      • SnapGene