In 1997, the NICHD, in collaboration with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), started a five-year, $45 million, international Network on the Neurobiology and Genetics of Autism. The Network included 10 Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (CPEAs) that would conduct research to learn about the possible causes of autism, including genetic, immunological, and environmental factors. In 2002, the NICHD and NIDCD renewed funding for the CPEA Network, agreeing to provide $60 million over a period of five years.

The CPEAs link 129 scientists from 23 universities in the United States, Canada, Britain, and five other countries, and more than 2,000 families of people with autism. Even though each site is studying a unique part of autism, core information collected by CPEA sites in their individual studies can be combined and used to study broader research questions that no project could address alone. This shared data set may allow scientists to find similarities and differences among people with autism and their families that would not be possible through a single study. In fact, as a result of the CPEAs, researchers now have data on the genetics and outward characteristics of the largest group of well-diagnosed persons with autism in the world.

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