Eligibility and
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Funding Rules
The Science Cloud usage is exclusively available limited to NASA NASA‑funded projects using NASA funds. External funding from non-NASA entities is not accepted. Funding cannot be used, and all funds must be formally obligated to the Science Cloud before any work can begin or cloud resources can be used.
Whether Our FinOps staff is available to support your budget development for both new proposals and awarded projects. If you are preparing a proposal or managing an existing project, the Science Cloud FinOps team can help you develop accurate cloud cost estimates .
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should be integrated into your planning as early as possible. Once awarded, funds designated for the Science Cloud remain with NASA (rather than transferring to your institution) and are applied directly to
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your cloud costs.
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How to Obligate Funds
Ames Research Center (ARC) serves as the institutional manager for manages all commercial cloud contracts supporting for the Science Cloud. To add money to your account, Principal Investigators (PIs) should must coordinate with their Resource Analysts (RAs) to initiate fund transfers to ARC.transfer funds.
Your funding obligation will cover two distinct Funding requirements include two components:
- Cloud service costs: Direct expenses
- charges for computing
- compute, storage, usage, and enterprise support from the cloud provider
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- Overhead fees: Administrative costs that support the Cloud Computing Services (CCS) team managing the commercial cloud services
- at ARC.
Transfer OptionsPathways: ARC financial staff will provide you and your RA with the exact dollar amounts needed for both the cloud usage and the overhead obligations. Funds can be transferred in two ways:
- Direct transfer from NASA Headquarters
- : HQ sends funds directly to ARC (requires coordination with HQ finance).
- Funds are sent directly from NASA HQ.
- Center‑to‑center transfer: This requires Center-to-Center transfer: An inter-center transfer requiring
- two separate Purchase Requests (PRs)—one specifically for the cloud costs
- usage, and one
- a second for the CCS support
- overhead.
How Funds Are Used: First-In-First-Out (FIFO)
Once obligated, funds enter a pooled system managed by a FIFO rule—the oldest funds pay each monthly invoice.
- Same-year funding can usually be deobligated and used for other allowed work if a cloud account is closed.
- Prior-year funding may not be deobligatable, but can still pay for services used on the cloud contract.
Note: For new cloud accounts, an initial obligation of funds is usually required to familiarize the team with the process and verify funds are available.
The Monthly Billing Cycle
For funds to be obligated in a given month, transfers to ARC must be processed by the designated mid-month deadline. If funds miss the deadline, they appear as "Expected" in the system as a reminder to verify their status.
The billing cycle operates in five phases:
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The Billing Cycle and FIFO Rules
In order for funds to be recognized in the current month, transfers must reach ARC by the mid‑month deadline. If they arrive late, they will be listed in your dashboard as "Expected funds" until fully processed.
Funds in the Science Cloud are spent using a First‑In‑First‑Out (FIFO) method. This means the system automatically uses your oldest obligated funds to pay your monthly invoices. If you close an account, same‑year funds can typically be deobligated and returned, but prior‑year funds usually cannot (though they can still be used to pay for active cloud invoices).
Note: When opening a brand new cloud account, an initial obligation is normally required. This verifies that funds are available and familiarizes the new team with the transfer process
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