About Terra

About

Terra is a cloud-native platform designed for biomedical researchers to access data, run analyses, and collaborate securely in the cloud. It supports large-scale scientific workflows, interactive analysis environments, and data sharing under robust security controls. 

This page provides generic instructions on how to: sign up for Terra, navigate its core concepts, and leverage key tools for your research project.

Features

Terra provides you with:

• Workspaces where you combine your data, tools, and results in a shared environment. 

• Access to public and controlled datasets (including petabytes of data) and the ability to bring in your own files for analysis. 

• Analytics modes:

  • Workflows (batch pipelines) using e.g. WDL, executed in the cloud. 

  • Interactive analysis apps (such as Jupyter Notebooks, RStudio, Galaxy) in a Cloud Environment. 

• Built-in sharing and collaboration controls: invite collaborators, manage workspace permissions, share data without unnecessary duplication. 

• A modern cloud-architecture, where compute and storage scale rather than being confined to a fixed local system. 

• Cost and billing transparency: you pay for the cloud resources you use, not for idle machines.

Gaining Access

Step 1: Fulfill Terra.bio Pre-requisites

1. Visit the Terra site at https://terra.bio/ and click Sign In or Get Started. 

2. Create your account: you may use Google SSO or other identity (depending on your institution). 

3. Set up or link a Google Cloud Billing account (for Terra on GCP) or follow your institution’s process. 

4. Once your account and billing project are ready, create a workspace or request access to an existing shared workspace.

   1. Purchase compute power through your Terra account following Terra’s Get Started instructions. To try out Terra, you can receive a $300 Google credit here.

Step 2: Fulfill ELITE Portal Pre-requisites

5. If your project uses controlled access data, ensure you have the required authorization domains, linked credentials, or data-use permissions. 

   1. To download or export data from the ELITE Portal, you need to:

      1. Create a free Synapse account.

      2. Fulfill all access requirements for the data that will be exported to Terra. For controlled access data, this will require submission and approval of your data access request.

Step 3: Export Data to Your Terra Workspace

1. In the ELITE Portal, navigate to Explore > Data.

2. Filter and/or select the data files you want to export.

3. Select “Send All Results to Analysis Platform.”

4. Follow the on-screen prompts to:

   • Choose Terra.bio as your analysis platform.

   • Select your target workspace in Terra.

Once complete, your selected files will be available in your Terra workspace for full analysis functionality. Visit the Terra website for details navigating the Terra resources and workspace.

Disclaimer: Users must comply with the Data Use Conditions and any other applicable terms of both the ELITE Portal and Terra.bio. Accessing and using controlled data requires adherence to all approved data use agreements and institutional policies.