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Our Discussion Forum is a great place to reach out to the broader Synapse community to find others that may be interested in a collaboration. Depending on your plan level [link to offerings page](Synapse Offerings), you may have access to our help desk. 

The Terms The Terms and Conditions of Use fully Use fully describes the governance terms and conditions of Synapse. In order to register on Synapse, you must review and agree to the terms of the Synapse Awareness and Ethics Pledge. For more information, see /wiki/spaces/DOCS/pages/2004255211 Synapse Governance.

See Getting Started for a breakdown of what you need to get started and how to make the most of Synapse. You may browse the public content catalog and access limited features,  but  but to access most features of Synapse, you must register for a Synapse user account. Before uploading User Content, you will need to complete specific training demonstrating your understanding of the ethical, legal, and technical issues associated with using and sharing User Content and how User Content is managed and shared in Synapse.

Sage offers the following service plans: (1) a Basic Hosting Plan, (2) a paid-for Self-Managed Plan, and (3) a paid-for, customized, Data Coordination Plan.  The Sage Terms of Service apply to each of these plans unless otherwise noted.  Additional governance terms may apply.

Basic Hosting Plan

1. Included Services

The Basic Hosting Planis intended for users wanting to share small datasets for scientific, educational, research collaborations, and publications (including creating DOIs) purposes.  This plan includes:

• User Content hosting of up to 100GB of space;

• Egress capped at 4TB/year

• Self-service Project set-up with no direct support from Sage staff;

• A basic portal landing page (Wiki); and

• Users can create Projects where they have with administrative control over who is granted access to each Project.

2. User Content Longevity

Sage will continue to host User Content in a Basic Hosting Plan for as long as the User Content is being viewed or accessed.  Sage currently utilizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) Intelligent-Tiering storage in all service plans.  Infrequently accessed User Content will be moved to access tiers that require longer retrieval times. 

Sage may, at its own discretion and with notice to the Project Administrator, implement cost mitigation strategies, including, for example, moving User Content to lower-cost hosting services or employing fee sharing if such User Content accumulates high egress charges.

Sage reserves the right to delete User Content, including Private Content, if deemed inappropriate or if it conflicts with the Sage Terms of Service or at Sage’s discretion, after 24 months of inactivity (i.e., User Content is not viewed or downloaded).  Sage will reach out to the Project Administrator of the User Content at least two times (at the email address provided upon registration) warning that the User Content may be removed if the user does not respond with a proposed use case for the User Content.  If the Project Administrator does not respond within 30 days of the second warning, Sage has the right to delete the User Content.

3. Third-party access to User Content Hosted in a Basic Hosting Plan

Project Administrators are expected to respond to inquiries from Sage or other Synapse users without delay.  If Sage receives complaints that a Project Administrator is not responding to inquiries, Sage will assume the Project Administrator’s account is inactive and reserves the right to suspend the Project Administrator’s account.

Self-Managed Plan

1. Included Services

The Self-Managed Plan includes: 

• Option 1: User Content hosting of up to 100GB of space; Egress capped at 4TB /year 

• Option 2: User Content hosting of up to 500GB of space; Egress capped at 20TB/ year

• Up to 15 hours of consulting services, including for setting up Projects and sharing User Content according to the F.A.I.R. principles and governance; 

• Up to 25 hours of help desk support;

• Tools for self-managing User Content access requests; 

• A basic portal landing page (Wiki); and

• Users can create Projects where they have administrative control over who is granted access to each Project and can deploy User Content restrictions by clickwrap agreements.

2. User Content Longevity

Sage will keep User Content in a Self-Managed Plan for 5 years (or as otherwise negotiated).  Sage utilizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) Intelligent-Tiering storage in all of the service plans.  Infrequently accessed User Content will be moved to access tiers that require longer retrieval times.  

After the Self-Managed Plan expires, the Self-Managed Plan account holder will have 3 months to retrieve or make other arrangements with regard to their User Content or to renew the Self-Managed Plan.  After this 3-month grace period, if the account holder does not retrieve or make other arrangements with regard to their User Content or renew the Self-Managed Plan, Sage reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to archive, freeze, delete, or move the User Content.  For example, if the User Content meets the criteria, Sage may move the User Content to a Basic Hosting Plan or to the AWS Open Data (or a similar) program.

3. Third-Party Access to User Content Hosted in a Self-Managed Plan

Project Administrators are expected to respond to inquiries from Sage or other Synapse Users without delay.  If Sage receives complaints that a Project Administrator is not responding to inquiries, Sage will try to reach out to such Project Administrator, and to the institution associated with the Self-Managed Plan account.  If the Project Administrator and institution are not responsive, Sage reserves the right to suspend the Self-Managed Plan account. Sage will not provide a refund if a Self-Managed Plan is suspended for failure to meet service level expectations.

Data Coordination Plan

1. Included Services

The Data Coordination Plan offers customized, end-to-end management of User Content supporting collaborative, multi-institutional research consortia.  This plan includes:

• Customized consulting services, and data curation, harmonization, and validation services;

• Expert resources to localize data policies and governance controls to your particular country’s requirements as applicable; and

• Services to create a customized and feature-rich data exploration portal for your coordination center that includes links to sophisticated computational environments.

2. User Content Longevity

The longevity of Sage’s hosting of User Content will be mutually agreed upon by the account holder of the Data Coordination Plan and Sage.

Because Data Coordination Plans are typically customized to meet the needs of a particular proposal, they are subject to additional contractual documentation.

The DMSP that went into effect on January 25, 2023 applies to all research funded or conducted in whole or in part by NIH. The goal of the policy is to promote the sharing of scientific data, which can accelerate biomedical research discovery, enable validation of research results, and provide accessibility to high-value datasets.

Under the policy, NIH expects that investigators and institutions will:

• Plan and budget for the managing and sharing of data.

• Submit a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) plan.

• Comply with the approved DMS plan and annually report on its implementation.

The DMSP provides guidance on how to manage and share data in a responsible and ethical manner to help accelerate biomedical research discovery and improve human health.

How can Sage help? In most cases researchers must address the NIH DMSP when submitting their grant/funding proposal. For the Self-Managed and Data Coordination Plans, Sage can help:

• Develop a data management and sharing plan that meets the requirements of the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.

• Develop an appropriate budget for the data management and sharing plan that meets the F.A.I.R principles.

• Provide guidance on how to store and secure the data at a level appropriate for its sensitivity.

• Promote the responsible sharing of data for scientific, education, and research purposes.

How to get started? Sage’s expertise makes it easy to create an NIH Data Management and Sharing plan and budget. Sage can provide budgeting quotes, and text researchers can directly use in their NIH Data Management and Sharing plan. To start, Contact Us.

No, accounts and projects as of <DATE> are grandfathered with their current March 4, 2024 will continue under the terms of their previous agreement with Sage.

These are the general storage limitations for each plan: up to 100GB for Basic Plans Hosting Plan and up to 500GB for the Self-Managed Plans. You may pay for additional storage if needed. Please see our Sage Offerings page [LINK] for more information. There are no data limits if you use Custom Storagein your own cloud bucket, and depending on the dataset uploaded, storage may be sponsored by an existing project.   Contact us to learn more.

As a non-profit organization, Sage strives to keep our services accessible and affordable for all users. Maintaining a reliable and secure cloud storage infrastructure comes with significant costs, particularly when it comes to data egress. These costs can quickly add up, especially as the volume of data downloaded increases.

To address this challenge, we implemented measures to monitor and control data downloads. By setting reasonable limits on data egress, we can manage our costs and ensure the long-term viability of our platform for the benefit of all users.

In general, we advise to store and process user content in the cloud. Beyond cost efficiency, this provides greater data security, improved accessibility, faster insights, and better governance controls.

There may be exceptions to these standard egress limits under the following circumstances:

• When a Synapse plan is used in combination with a user’s custom storage Custom Storage location. Under these circumstances, the user has greater ownership and control of one’s files, and storage and egress costs are the responsibility of the user.

• When the Synapse plan user qualifies as a non-profit or newly established start-up entity. Under these circumstances, the user may be eligible for a discounted plan. This is judged on a case-by-case basis.

Sage offers integrations with multiple cloud compute environments for customized Data Coordination Plans. Synapse is open source with standard interfaces and programming models <TBD Link to docs>(see API Clients and Documentation)

“Deidentified Data” refers to Personal Data from which all directly identifiable elements
(e.g., name, street address, date of birth, government identity number, etc.) have beenis
removed and the individual is solely identified by a random, unique reference number or
code that is not derived from or related to the individual’s personal information; (2) that are
provided, stored, and transmitted separately from the key that would make reidentification
possible; and that are subject to a binding contractual or other legal obligation not to
attempt to reidentify the Data except as authorized by law.