Data Availability

Data Availability

The SPARC Data and Resource Center (SPARC DRC) is committed to ensure data availability and longevity for the SPARC community. To support continuous operation beyond the original SPARC Program funding, we are diversifying funding sources and securing additional mechanisms to support different aspects of the Portal. In the unlikely event that continuation of the SPARC Portal is at risk, the SPARC DRC has policies and strategies in place to minimize the impact on data availability and will provide transparent information around the mitigation efforts. Together, our distributed data storage plan supports all data published to the SPARC repository will remain available for at least 10 years after its publication. Review our Data Persistence Policy

AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program

SPARC has been accepted into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Data Sponsorship Program.

For all public data available on the SPARC Portal, AWS covers the cost of storage and transfer. Here's what these significant benefits mean for you:

• Free long-term storage for your published data
• Free data downloads from the SPARC Portal
• Free data transfer and cloud-based access to your own AWS S3 bucket

SPARC datasets are now accessible on the Registry of Open Data at AWS - visit SPARC's listing now!

NIH STRIDES Initiative

The NIH Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative is a partnership with commercial cloud service providers (CSPs) to allow NIH-supported researchers to affordably access cloud services and environments (STRIDES Initiative | Data Science at NIH).

SPARC utilizes the discounted rates from the NIH STRIDES Initiative partnership with AWS to provide users with access to workspace storage to prepare datasets for publication.

Archival Data Availability

To support continuity of data availability beyond a potential funding horizon for SPARC published data, the University of Pennsylvania commits to ensuring data will continue to be publicly available for a minimum of 10 years post data submission, in accordance with the FAIR standards of data sharing and the NIH requirements for repositories.