Launched in 2006, SFARI is a scientific initiative within the Simons Foundation’s suite of programs. SFARI’s mission is to advance the basic science of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.
In 2007, SFARI issued its first request for applications, its goal being to attract top researchers to the field of autism research. Today, with a budget of over $100 million per year, SFARI supports over 300 investigators. Since 2003, the Simons Foundation has provided or committed more than $725 million in external research support to more than 700 investigators in the U.S. and abroad.
SFARI awards research grants to investigators, nationally and internationally, through an open Requests for Applications process that is overseen by the SFARI science team and that includes external review by expert scientific panels.
Our grant portfolio includes grants to individual investigators, collaborative research projects (such as the Autism Rat Models Consortium and Sex Differences in Autism project) as well as fellowship awards to early career scientists (through our Fellows-to-Faculty program and Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience). SFARI also provides support for centers based at two institutions: the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain at the University of Edinburgh and the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT. However, SFARI is not currently accepting proposals for institutional funding.
Additionally, to facilitate and drive research in the field as a whole, SFARI has created and supports numerous resources for autism scientists:
- Simons Simplex Collection (SSC), which contains extensive genetic and phenotypic data from nearly 3,000 families with a child affected by autism.
- Simons Searchlight, which aims to identify and study large numbers of individuals sharing recurrent genetic variants known to increase the risk of developing autism spectrum and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK), an online research initiative that aims to recruit, engage and retain a community of 50,000 individuals with autism and their family members living in the U.S.
- Autism Inpatient Collection (AIC), a rigorously characterized sample of children and adolescents with autism that includes a substantial representation of the severely affected population (including those who are minimally verbal, have very low adaptive functioning and/or engage in challenging behaviors).
- SFARI Gene, an online autism genetics database.
- SFARI Base, which provides access to SSC, Simons Searchlight, SPARK and AIC data.
- Data Analysis Tools, which support the visualization and analysis of genetic and phenotypic data from the SSC, Simons Searchlight and SPARK.
- Autism BrainNet, which aims to provide scientists with well-characterized, high-quality brain tissue for study.
- Mouse models of autism, which are available to the scientific community through a partnership with The Jackson Laboratory.
- Rat models of autism, which are available to the scientific community through a partnership with The Medical College of Wisconsin.
- Zebrafish models of autism, which are available to the scientific community through The Zebrafish International Research Center.
- Induced pluripotent stem cell lines from SSC and Simons Searchlight participants.