The FAIR Data Innovations Hub Will Continue to Improve SODA for Easily Sharing FAIR Data on sparc.science

The FAIR Data Innovations Hub will continue the development of SODA, the software that makes it easier for researchers to share Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) neuromodulation-related data and models on the SPARC repository at sparc.science. During this 6th phase of development, the focus will be on adapting SODA to support the new SPARC Data Structure (SDS) and improving the user experience further so that SODA can continue to support data-sharing researchers even after the SPARC program ends next year.

The NIH SPARC program

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program in 2014. The program's goal is to accelerate the development of therapeutic devices, known as neuromodulation devices, that modulate electrical activity in nerves to improve organ function. A major aim of the SPARC program is to maximize reuse of data for enhancing the pace of discoveries. To achieve that, the SPARC has supported the development of sparc.science, a repository dedicated to sharing FAIR neuromodulation-related data. While initially reserved for sharing SPARC-funded data, sparc.science is now an open repository where anyone can share datasets relevant to the SPARC Program. The SPARC repository is also used for sharing data from other NIH programs such as the HEAL Initiative

Data sharing challenges and SODA

Sharing data on sparc.science requires data to be formatted according to the SDS. Preparing SDS-compliant datasets and sharing them on sparc.science can be time consuming and difficult for researchers given the extensive requirements of the SDS (necessary for making data FAIR). To address these challenges, we are developing SODA (Software to Organize Data Automatically) from 2019, a cross-platform and open-source desktop software that guides researchers step-by-step into preparing SDS-compliant datasets and submitting them to sparc.science. SODA is designed to reduce researchers time and effort in the process by combining intuitive user interfaces with automation. Evaluations have shown that SODA reduces researchers' time, complexity, and human errors in the SPARC data sharing process. Since January 2021, SODA has been used from over 1,000 computers and helped researchers process over 420,000 files representing over 30 TB of data.

Plans for the upcoming year

During this Phase 6 (September 2024 - August 2025) of development, we will continue to implement additional features to further streamlining the process of sharing data on sparc.science. In particular, we will adapt SODA to support SDS 3.0 and improve the dataset structuring feature.

Funding

This project is supported by the National Institutes of Health. The development of SODA was funded through a subaward to our SPARC research award during year 1 (3OT2OD025308, May 2019 - August 2020) before receiving a dedicated award from year 2 onward (OT2OD030213, September 2020 - Present).

We are excited!

The FAIR Data Innovations Hub is delighted to continue being a part of the NIH SPARC program, where it all started for us!