Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative

The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, or SFARI for short, is a research program established in 2005 by the Simons Foundation, which focuses on all aspects of autism research. Its director is Kelsey Martin.^[1] The organization has funded more than $200 million in autism research to 150 different investigators since 2007.^[2] The awards they give out include Bridge to Independence Awards (for early-careers researchers transitioning to independent positions),^[3] Pilot Awards (for innovative high-impact proposals for experiments still in the preliminary stages), Research Awards (for research into a topic which has already been investigated at least preliminarily), and Explorer Awards (which provides grants for focused experiments on a one-time basis).^[4] One specific type of research they specialize in is mouse models of autism, which they are trying to make more available in cooperation with the Jackson Laboratory.^[5]

Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative

Founded	2003; 22 years ago (2003)
Founders	James Simons, Marilyn Simons
Legal status	private organization
Headquarters	New York City
Services	Research
Director	Kelsey Martin
Website	www.sfari.org

SFARI Gene is an integrative model with a publicly available web portal for the ongoing collection, curation and visualization of genes linked to autism disorders. The content originates entirely from the published scientific literature. SFARI Gene also provides a comprehensive collection of animal models linked to autism.^[6] The Simons Simplex Collection is a sample gathered by SFARI from over 2000 families for identifying de novo genetic variants that contribute to the overall risk of autism.^[7]

In 2016, SFARI launched Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research (SPARK), an online research initiative designed to become the largest autism study ever undertaken in the United States. For researchers, SPARK provides a large, well-characterized cohort of genetic, medical and behavioral data, and will result in cost-savings for researchers by reducing start-up costs for individual studies.^[8]

Spectrum

In 2008, SFARI launched Spectrum, an Autism research news website, as the "News & Opinion" section of the SFARI website.^[9] In the summer of 2015, Spectrum was spun off of SFARI as an independent online news entity.^[9]