Help set up a cloud database for R-based project

The database will be created from scratch and this will involve everything, including the choice of the cloud provider. There will be 10+ datafiles from the start, and more going forward. That is why we could probably cut the project into separate milestones. There are many R scripts, typically each tied to one or several datasets - merging them, creating common keys/IDs.. These R scripts will need to be able to easily access the data from the database and also update it with the outputs of various R scripts. The subject domain of the data is medicine/science (you don't need to have domain knowledge for this project, it's more important that you're a database wizard!). With this, the entire project will be more of a continuous collaboration. We can start with a smaller number of datasets, and then build upon the initial database, in a modular structure - defining milestones along the way, so that we are both in sync about what is going on.