SPARK (Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge) is an autism 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. Participation in this cohort will involve contribution of medical and behavioral information, mailing in saliva for genetic analysis, the potential option to have genetic findings related to autism returned, and consenting to be invited to participate in future research studies.

The project is operated by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) in collaboration with 31 university-affiliated research clinics, whose roles are to help enroll individuals with autism and their families to the study. Numerous national and local autism community organizations across the U.S. are also helping to find research participants and spread the word about this landmark initiative.

Families who are interested in learning more about SPARK or in participating can visit SPARKforAutism.org.  De-identified data will be available to qualified researchers worldwide.

** A list of participating clinical sites and community partners is available here.