SPARC convenes and supports partners from around the globe with leading experts from across the University of Minnesota to organize, fund, and implement large-scale impactful programs. We match the right teams across disciplines, sectors, and borders and connect them to the resources, partners, and infrastructure needed for success.

SPARC fosters innovation by colliding academic, industry, government, community, and nonprofit researchers and practitioners to work together across disciplines. We leverage existing capabilities across our network to create creative solutions in new contexts and with new sources of funding.

SPARC brings innovation to the front lines of addressing grand challenges in the US and globally by leveraging and sharing expertise, tools, and resources to bring knowledge and innovation to the field. We support teams to optimize research and program impact through strong research translation, monitoring and evaluation and partner engagement planning and implementation. We seek to obtain funding for impactful work on a large scale where multiple projects involving multiple teams work synergistically toward greater good on the ground.