Founded in 2023, SPARK NS is an independent non-profit translational research organization dedicated to efficiently advancing promising neuroscience discoveries from the lab to the clinic.

SPARK NS offers disease-specific 2-year translational research programs that provide funding, education, mentorship, and networking opportunities to academic principal investigators (PIs) with promising therapeutic discoveries. The programs are designed to close gaps in knowledge and know-how and eliminate barriers that slow or prevent promising discoveries from directly benefiting patients. SPARK NS programs operate on a proven model for collaboration between academic researchers and industry experts developed and refined at Stanford University School of Medicine since 2006.

Academic PIs with projects at any stage of development between target identification and entry into clinical trials are eligible to apply to SPARK NS programs. As an independent organization not affiliated with any academic institution, SPARK NS will select the most promising projects that emerge from the global neuroscience research community. SPARK NS currently focuses on Parkinson’s disease, with plans to expand to bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorder.