National Parkinson Foundation Awards More Than $7.8 Million in Grants, USA

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Article Date: 06 Jun 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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The National Parkinson Foundation announces that its Board of Directors has awarded $7,875,000 in grants for Parkinson research, care, outreach, and education. "This is an unprecedented sum for us to award at a single meeting," commented NPF Chairman Emeritus Nathan Slewett.

"But it constitutes the best evidence of our continuing determination to do away with this disease and help those who must deal with it every day of their lives." President Daniel Arty took note of the source of the monies that made the grants possible. "Without the continuing generosity of our donors, large and small, this historic effort could simply not have been made," he said. As always, all NPF grants are subject to strict requirements for reporting and accountability and forbid the use of grant monies for overhead or administration.

Of the $7,875,000 in grants, $4,351,181 is for research into the cause and cure of Parkinson disease, distributed as shown immediately below. When previously approved research monies are added in, NPF's funding of research will total approximately $5 million. Here is the breakdown:

* $798,723 for research projects at 14 NPF Centers of Excellence in the United States, Canada, and around the world;

* $2,892,458 in large grants for 9 targeted, time-limited, one- to three- year preclinical or clinical studies, directly relevant to studying the cause and cure for Parkinson disease, for which applicants have identified very promising and exciting hypotheses, with the goal of obtaining sufficient data to establish or refute those hypotheses and thereby significantly advance the state of the science; and

* $560,000 for 14 high-risk, high-yield projects, preferably by beginning scientists, provided that the projects are thoughtfully composed and reasonably likely to advance the state of the knowledge about Parkinson disease; and

* $100,000 for the testing of a promising neuroprotective drug under development.

In addition, a total of $1,153,911 in grants was awarded for patient care at 19 major hospital and academic institutions. The projects in question range from "traditional" neurological care to deep-brain stimulation, to interdisciplinary teams of specialists, to care-plan development, to a movement-disorders genetic clinic, among others.

Also awarded were grants totaling $2,255,905 for outreach to be conducted by 36 NPF Centers in the United States and Canada, as well as $113,580 in grants to 11 NPF affiliated Chapters for support services, strategic planning, education, and outreach.

Complete information on these and on prior grants, together with descriptions of each grant program and project, may be obtained at the NPF website, http://www.parkinson.org.

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