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Meet the Scientific Advisory Committee When you donate to the Neurological Foundation, your donation is going toward funding cutting-edge research into neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and many more. Research is the key to finding the causes of and cures for these disorders, so it is important to know how the Neurological Foundation chooses which research projects to fund. The Scientific Advisory Committee, or SAC, is a group of eleven research specialists, comprising neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychologists, and neuroscientists, who advise the Foundation Council which grant applications to approve. Associate Professor Cathy Stinear Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee Cathy is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, a clinical neuroscientist at Auckland City Hospital working with patients to promote recovery following stroke, is the Director of the Brain Research Clinic at the Centre for Brain Research and sits on the Health Research Council review panel. Cathy joined the SAC in 2008 because of the essential role the Foundation plays in helping researchers make new discoveries. Dr Louise Parr-Brownlie Deputy Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee Louise is a neurophysiologist, a Senior Lecturer in neuroscience and leading researcher in Parkinson’s disease at the University of Otago. Her research is focused on how changes in brain circuitry underlie the movement deficits in Parkinson’s disease. Louise joined the SAC in 2015, believing that to ensure the most promising research was funded would be the best way to give back to the scientific community. Louise also is a member of the Maori Advisory Board for Brain Research New Zealand and the International Basal Ganglia Society Council, Louise was appointed Deputy Chair of the SAC in January 2018. Dr Melanie McConnell Melanie is a leading researcher in neuro-oncology and Senior Lecturer in genetics at Victoria University of Wellington. Melanie spent 8 years in NewYork researching gene expression in leukaemia at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Melanie returned to New Zealand in 2006 to establish the cancer stem cell programme at the Malaghan Institute. Melanie had been involved in research funded by the Neurological Foundation in the past and after filling in for a colleague in 2015, the scientific rigour of the grants process convinced her to take up a position on the SAC. Each member of the SAC reads all applications given to them by the Foundation’s Research Manager, Dr Douglas Ormrod, before selecting a smaller number to review and write detailed reports on. Additionally, each application is sent to several external reviewers who are specialist in the field of research of individual projects. All applications are then presented at a roundtable discussion at the twice-yearly SAC meetings where they are scored and ranked on several objective criteria.Their recommendations are presented to the Foundation’s Council for approval. With the help of the SAC, the Neurological Foundation has been able to fund $12.8 million of research into neurological conditions over the past 5 years.The SAC is an integral part of the Foundation, and we’d like you to meet them. Behind the Scenes with the Scientific Advisory Committee You are invited to find out more about the Scientific Advisory Committee at our Headlines event on 19 February. 6 / Headlines