Fig. 1: Description of the network.

a, Geographical representation of the six laboratories marked with a yellow dot (Augusta, University of Iowa, Johns Hopkins, Mass General Hospital (MGH), Yale and UT-Houston) sending data to the CC at University of Southern California (USC), marked with a yellow star, where the data repositories are located, including IDA of LONI and Statistics. The External Advisory Board (EAB) provides feedback to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in Washington DC, which also advises the network. b, Graphical representation of the decisions the SC makes, including approving SOPs, communication and website development, stage-specific treatment protocols, the model choice, behavioral outcome measures and the experimental protocol, which includes when MRI images are collected as well as histology decisions and publication requests from within the network and outside the network. c, General experimental timeline through end of study (EOS): each animal starts with baseline corner testing performed seven days before MCAo surgery. NDS are collected on the day of surgery, day 1, day 2 and day 28. MRI is performed at day 2 and day 29. In addition to the baseline, corner testing is performed at day 7 and day 28, along with grid testing and hanging wire testing. *The hanging wire test was discontinued after stage 1. d, Pathways of data flow from the research laboratories to central storage and analysis. Data collected at the laboratories included animal records, MRI images and behavior videos, which are sent to either other laboratories, the database or LONI for analysis. Once compiled, all raw data are sent to statistics for results. e, Total number of data entry forms in the REDCap database for each stage (1–4) of the trial. Panels a–d created in BioRender; Lamb, J. https://biorender.com/sae4s8q (2026).