The IRGP currently awards grants of up to $40,000 to individual research scientists around the world who are conducting studies that are directly relevant to the causes of and a cure for Parkinson's disease. The studies must also be complementary to and not duplicative of other research in the field, and have the potential to lead to research proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or international equivalent. Formal proposals are reviewed by a panel of eminent Parkinson's scientists headed by Stanley Fahn, M.D., the Houston Merritt Professor of Neurology at Columbia University, New York.
"With these criteria, we aim to fund research of the highest quality, pertinence and long-term potential for solving the mystery of Parkinson's disease," Robin Elliott, Executive Director of the PDF said, "and at the same time, help to build the profession of movement disorders scientists and leverage additional funds from other sources."
Of the 49 scientists to whom the PDF granted awards between 1999 and 2002, 18 have gone on to receive major awards from the NIH or the equivalent international agencies.
"Few institutions provide funding for scientists to gather essential pilot data required in any new scientific investigation; most grants require a scientist to gather the pilot data first," said Dr. Giselle Petzinger, 2003 grant recipient from the University of Southern California. "The PDF h
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Contact: Lucy Sargent
lsargent@pdf.org
212-923-4700
Parkinson's Disease Foundation
8-Jan-2004