SPARC Funding

The SPARC program awards up to $400,000 dollars for collaborative projects between seven institutions and companies across the country that focus on understanding and treating autoimmune diseases, or diseases where the body attacks itself.

SPARC – which stands for Strategic Pharma-Academic Research Consortium – supports translational projects that help researchers better understand how autoimmune diseases work. The program focuses on developing biomarkers – or substances in your body that indicate normal or abnormal processes – that can predict and monitor a patient’s response to treatment, as well as research that can improve existing treatments.

Funding is provided by consortium members, and winning projects are funded up to $400,000. SPARC is a collaborative program, requiring researchers to team up with scientists from consortium institutions or companies in one of the following areas:

1. Underserved but relatively common autoimmune diseases, such as fibrotic diseases, progressive Multiple Sclerosis, Sjögrenssyndrome, celiac disease, etc.
2. Rare-or low-prevalence inflammatory diseases.
3. Defined subpopulations of higher-prevalence diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, atopic diseases, or respiratory diseases.
4. The microbiome.

Consortium members include:

SPARC is not currently accepting applications. To be notified of the next cycle, sign up for our newsletter here.

Questions? Contact Anne Nguyen, COBRA Program Director, at annnguye*iu.edu.