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Purchase a License

How to purchase a license for NIH GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

A unique-user license is required to become a member of the NIH GitHub enterprise.

Licenses are purchased as part of NIH’s Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft (the parent organization of GitHub). The NIH Information System Designated Procurement (ISDP) program provides the mechanism for NIH to acquire licenses. License costs and instructions for purchasing can be found on the ISDP website. (Note: this page requires NIH network/VPN access.)

Once you’ve identified your licensing needs, you can contact your ISDP Agency Contact, or contact ISDP directly at NIHISDP@nih.gov, to obtain a quote. You will need to provide ISDP the number and type of licenses you require, and they will provide you a quote and request your approval and Common Account Number (CAN) to cite for your order.

Please note that ISDP typically places an order around the 15th of each month, with licenses being delivered within approximately 45 days (e.g., orders placed on or before January 15th will have a delivery date of March 1st).

Note: If the ISDP delivery date is a risk to your project start, please reach out to the NIH GitHub team. Please include the details of your ISDP purchase and ask if any licenses are available to borrow while your purchase is being processed.

Licenses in the NIH GitHub enterprise are managed by Enterprise Owners and/or Organization Owners. NIH staff can contact us to identify the appropriate NIH GitHub point of contact for their Institute, Center, or Office (ICO).

A high-level overview of the licensing process is shown below:

nih isdp procurement process

To faciliate a smooth license acquisition process, it is important to ensure that NIH Budget Officials, Administrative Officers, or other ICO procurement staff are included in the request to ISDP for a license quote. Once a purchase request is submitted, it is often possible for limited licenses to be “floated” in advance of receipt for all licenses, so that work can commence during the standard ISDP 6-week waiting period.