University Of California-San Diego receives $174K Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders grant from the National Institutes of Health

Crcns: open data commons for stroke research - promoting fair data through community-driven design - project summary (see instructions): this project will establish odc-stroke, a federated open data commons platform designed to support fair (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) sharing of preclinical stroke research data and improve translation from laboratory studies to clinical therapies. Stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, yet only one of more than 1,000 preclinical treatments has achieved clinical approval, highlighting an urgent need for more transparent, reproducible, and data-driven research practices. Building on the successful odc-sci and odc-tbi platforms, the project will create a sustainable, cloud-based infrastructure that enables stroke researchers to securely manage, publish, share, and reuse primary datasets while supporting interoperability across stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury research communities. The platform will support federated international data sharing and integrate persistent identifiers, DOI publication workflows, and orcid authentication to enhance data discoverability and attribution. A major focus of the project is the development of community-driven common data elements (cdes) to standardize experimental variables, improve data harmonization, and enable large-scale integration of diverse datasets. Through international working groups and alignment with related neuroscience standards, the project will create reusable stroke-specific cdes that support advanced analytics, al, and machine learning approaches. The project also emphasizes user-centered design, researcher training, and community engagement to promote broad adoption of fair data practices. Workshops, usability testing, online tutorials, and collaborative support activities will ensure that odc-stroke is practical and accessible for researchers at all career stages. By enabling aggregation of previously siloed long-tail and unpublished dark data, odc-stroke will support reproducible science, reduce redundancy in animal research, accelerate discovery through cross-study analyses, and foster a culture of open science in stroke research.