What We Offer
Whether you are an individual researcher, manage a larger group, or a project funder interested in the peripheral nervous system and its impact, consider using SPARC when planning your study or project. SPARC is fully compliant with requirements for managing and sharing data according to the NIH DMS policy.
Thinking about how your research fits?
Our domain of interest is neuromodulation of the peripheral nervous system, with a special focus on its impacts on organ function. The goal of the SPARC program is to identify neural targets and accelerate the development of therapeutic devices that modulate electrical activity in the vagus and other nerves to help treat diseases and conditions, such as hypertension and gastrointestinal disorders, by precisely adjusting organ function. It doesn't end with the autonomic nervous system, though, since on- and off-target predictions require a comprehensive understanding of how its interacts and controls organ function. That's why the SPARC Portal is an open repository, to integrate and expand knowledge regarding the peripheral nervous system, including the spinal cord.
Is SPARC a fit for you? We encourage you to contact us to discuss your research, specific needs, and support levels.
Here's how the SPARC Data and Resource Center can help:
| Have research to share now? | Submitting a grant? | Manage larger projects or consortia? |
|---|---|---|
| For a limited time, the NIH SPARC Common Fund will cover costs to accept datasets and models at no cost* to you, the investigator. | We offer assistance in both data services and grant language to ease the load on your lab. | We can support your consortium with expert consultation services (e.g, on curation, standardization, FAIR data sharing practices, or modeling), advanced knowledge management support, adaptation of tools to fit your needs, and education of your key personnel on SPARC-elaborated process and ready-made workflows. |
| Your research must fit the mission of SPARC. | SPARC DRC can provide a Data Management and Sharing Plan template and budget guidance that you can include with your grant submission. | We have demonstrated expertise in FAIR practices and standards support, as well as the ability to create customized resources for specific domain needs. |
| * SPARC Common Fund reserves the right to limit the number of free dataset submissions. | Choose SPARC Services levels that fit your needs. You can select a Standardized Level 1 package at $2,500 per dataset of up to 10 gb, with discounts for additional datasets. | Join other consortia that leverage the SPARC DRC and SPARC Portal for their projects. |
If any of these scenarios are appropriate, contact us to start a conversation.
What services are available?
The SPARC Data and Resource Center (DRC) offers an integrated approach and develops technologies that foster new collaborations to enable integration of data and models, meta-data, comprehensive knowledge management, and publication on the SPARC Portal. SPARC DRC services can be employed for selected datasets, models, or tools, or to support publication of complete project outcomes.
The DRC is composed of four complementary Cores that together can offer the following services:
Full project support:
- Dedicated private space
- Dedicated public space
- Community outreach: news/science highlights
- Integrated data viewers for data types not yet supported
- Standards development support
- FAIR data practice adoption
- Linkage to other data repositories
- as well as access to the full suite of SPARC services and tools, as provided below.
Data Management and Sharing:
- Private/public data management
- Data citation and metrics
- Custom data management services as negotiated
Curation services: SPARC standards ensure a consistent and professional look and feel across all datasets and an enhanced user experience through an expanded tool base
- SODA tool to help researchers organize their data according to SPARC standards
- Additional basic curatorial support is provided at no charge via office hours
- Professional curation as negotiated
Simulation platform: SPARC provides access to o²S²PARC and many of its services for academic use, including
- SPARC models of the peripheral nervous system, neuromodulation, and autonomic regulation of organ function
- Modules for interactive and reproducible image and data analysis, simulation tools and solvers (subcellular to large scale anatomy; data-based and mechanistic; biophysics and physiology), scripting (e.g., JupyterLab flavors), artificial intelligence, anatomical models, and much more
- Basic support (troubleshooting)
- Customized services and access, such as extended resources (storage and computational), application support (e.g., with model or application development, onboarding, and publication), customization of modules and platform functionality, setup of collaboration environments for organizations, own deployment and branded website, can be negotiated
Knowledge engineering and mapping services: SPARC maintains a full knowledge engineering service available for
- Building and extending ontologies
- Modeling multi-scale neuronal connectivity
- Utilizing the ApiNATOMY tools for building semantic models of functional tissue units
- Model onboarding support
- Mapping services
- Connectivity maps
- Custom knowledge engineering and mapping services as negotiated
We maintain a set of tools that allow investigators to perform several of these activities free of charge or you can utilize our expertise.
Contact us for additional information on how to work with SPARC Data and Resource Center.
Note: We are a non-profit and aim to provide our products free or for a minimal charge to the academic research community. We will never charge for access to our data and tools. However, in order to maintain and continue innovation of the SPARC Portal and associated products and services, we need those using SPARC to help defray some of our costs. Thank you for supporting our mission.
The SPARC Portal Release Notes are updated after each Portal development sprint and highlights new and updated features and functionality.
