DOCUMENT

10 Headlines employed as a research fellow on a larger project, or they can try and obtain their own fellowship. To eventually gain a permanent position as an academic, research fellows will often look at gaining teaching experience and short-term positions overseas. These early stages of their career can take anywhere from 3-15 years and are one of the key focuses of Neurological Foundation funding. The Foundation offers six fellowship funding opportunities that include options in New Zealand and overseas; options for medical doctors, neuroscientists, and clinicians; and options for early career and more senior fellowships. There are also two project grant options for small or large projects which fund costs to ensure the team has all the tools, specimens and help they need to conduct their research. The large projects will often employ early career research fellows or provide working expenses for PhD projects. We also provide PhD scholarships to cover university fees and living expenses for PhD students. Additionally, there are also travel grants and conference and training grants available to promote collaboration among the scientific community in New Zealand and abroad. One of our most popular grants are our 10-week Summer Studentships for undergraduate students, which can be their first ever research project and can lead to a lifelong career in neuroscience. All of these funding opportunities continue to offer scientists, clinicians and students the chance at taking their idea and answering the original question of “what if?” It’s a give and take process when it comes to research, especially neurological research as so little is known about the brain and nervous system. A lot of what the Neurological Foundation funds is to understand the basic science of neurological conditions and how it all works. Due to the complexity of the brain there is still so much to be discovered. Owing to the strength of neuroscience research in New Zealand, our high-quality publications and involvement in international travel and conferences, our scientists and clinicians are well respected and have many global collaborations. These are all key components to progressing neurological research and help us understand why the continuation of basic research is crucial. Not only to the researcher doing the science, but to those living with a neurological condition waiting for the next breakthrough. As a seed funder, part of the Foundation’s responsibility is to look at the potential of the research to make a difference to people living with neurological conditions. Whether this is in the near future or a long way down the track, it is important that the research we fund can go on to attract additional funding, and that it is translational. Collaboration is an important aspect of this. When our committees review applications for research funding, they look at whether research projects have all the necessary expertise involved in the team. A significant part of this is to engage clinicians in the research as much as possible. A team may have a great idea, but only a clinician who works with the patients will know if the idea would be clinically relevant and be implemented by the healthcare system. The Foundation is continually looking at how we can initiate and support research that will eventually impact neurological conditions. Whether it is following up on success stories years after we funded the initial research, or investing in breakthroughs that we may not see in our lifetime, it is exciting to see the impact we are making in the treatment of neurological conditions. “My honours supervisor, Professor Garth Cooper, was a prominent diabetes researcher who had the idea that there was a link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and adult onset diabetes (type 2). As the pilot study was successful, we expanded the study into a PhD project, where we identified six different pathways in the brain that were affected in AD. One of these was the glucose pathway (glycolysis), well-known to be affected in diabetes; we also found differences in other proteins associated with type 2 diabetes. This was an important study using basic science that highlighted how complex AD was. Even though there was no immediate connection between my PhD research and developing treatment for AD, we had begun to establish a connection between AD and type 2 diabetes which was an important contribution to the literature. This is one of the ways that we measure the impact of health research. Publications in high quality journals (such as Science) will be well read internationally and the outcomes will be used to advance that area of research.” Dr Sarah Schonberger, Research Manager at the Neurological Foundation and a neuroscientist herself, helps us understand this question. 2 Schonberger SJ, Edgar PF, Kydd R, Faull RL, Cooper GJ. Proteomic analysis of the brain in Alzheimer's disease: molecular phenotype of a complex disease process. Proteomics. 2001;1(12):1519- 1528. SO, WHY DOES NEUROLOGICAL RESEARCH IN PARTICULAR TAKE SO LONG TO COMPLETE?