SPARC - bridging the body and the brain
Learn about the SPARC Portal and the SPARC Data and Resource Center
What is SPARC?
SPARC is an open-science initiative dedicated to advancing understanding of the autonomic and peripheral nervous systems (ANS & PNS) and their role in health and disease. It provides researchers with a collaborative, FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) platform to drive discovery and innovation. At the heart of this effort is the SPARC Portal (SPARC.SCIENCE), a dynamic resource for meaningful and impactful sharing, visualization, computation, and virtual experiments. These technologies are developed and maintained by the SPARC Data and Resource Center (DRC).
SPARC Sustainability
The DRC is committed to ensuring a long-term future and establishing SPARC.SCIENCE as a cornerstone for collaborative and FAIR neuroscience and physiology research for a long time to come. As SPARC evolves, its tools, services, and resources are being expanded to support a broader research community, bridging the body and the brain, and fostering data integration, community engagement, and sustainable growth to accelerate discovery, research, and innovation. SPARC is now funded through a number of different mechanisms and is in the process of securing additional grant funding (currently under review).
Through these efforts, the DRC and the SPARC Portal will continue to serve as essential resources for the scientific community, fostering innovation and collaboration in neuroscience and physiology research. Learn more about our sustainability efforts.
Mission
SPARC seeks to advance scientific understanding and improve clinical outcomes by providing a leading platform for integrating data, knowledge, computational modeling, and mapping of the peripheral nervous system, its CNS interactions, and related physiological processes.
Goals:
- Enhance and expand the SPARC Portal as a leading FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) open-science infrastructure with a focus on bridging the body and brain.
- Drive advancements in neurophysiology, bioelectronic medicine, and related fields through the development of collaborative, high-impact research tools.
- Further exchange between interested parties, as well as the cohesion and growth of a corresponding research community.
Annual Report
We are pleased to share our annual public report describing highlights and plans for the SPARC platform. We at the SPARC Data and Resource Center (DRC) are on a mission to provide neuroscience researchers with an open platform and ecosystem of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data, models, and coming soon - devices. The SPARC Portal - https://sparc.science/ acts as a nexus between researchers, outcomes of the SPARC Consortium, and community support and outreach efforts.
Download and view the SPARC Annual Report 2025
Roadmap
To meet the Vision and Mission the SPARC Portal has a roadmap of future functionality to provide an open, sustainable online resource and infrastructure for autonomic neurosciences and bioelectronic medicine to the global scientific community, and to foster collaboration.
What We Offer
We offer an integrated approach and develop technologies that foster new collaborations to enable integration of data and models, meta-data, comprehensive knowledge management, and publication on the SPARC Portal.
The SPARC Portal offers a growing collection of digital resources that focus on the role of the peripheral nervous system in systems physiology, like controlling organ function - available for your exploration and re-use.
SPARC-Funded Fecobionics Device Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance
A sensor developed by Hans Gregersen and his team at California Medical Innovations Institute, funded by the SPARC program, has received FDA 510(k) clearance.
March 11, 2025
