Funding to support research is important for continuing scientific advancement.
Support an important pilot study
A major issue affecting research is that funding is limited and very competitive. Most federal funding is awarded to large-scale projects with approximately 35% going to just 15 institutions. It is difficult to obtain funding for small-scale preliminary studies and even more difficult given that we are outside these institutions. We fall in a middle ground in which we do not yet have the data to fully support a competitive National Institutes of Health grant for this project but cannot afford the project costs without support. Our solution is to turn to the community and ask for help.
Crowdsourcing, obtaining needed services by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, has been very successful in the last few years and has nearly doubled overall contributions each year. Online crowdsourcing platforms have raised billions of dollars to support social causes, entrepreneurship, and the arts, and we believe it can be a useful tool to support research as well. Crowdsourcing could provide a much-needed influx of funding for small-scale projects, which following preliminary data collection would then be able to compete for larger federal grants.
We are asking for your support in getting our project off the ground, getting the word out to the community, and answering some important questions about a disorder affecting people you know.
Support continuing graduate education
The Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (CN Lab) accepts graduate trainees through the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program (INP). The INP provides training in basic and clinical research from faculty across numerous departments at the university. As an interdisciplinary program, the INP does not have the financial support available for graduate students that a traditional department can offer. Our current graduate trainees are investigating pharmacological intervention in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), sympathetic nervous system effects on gastrointestinal disorders in ASD, neuroimaging and treatment markers for ASD and stress-related disorders, biological and treatment markers for dementia, and diet and stress effects on development of the nervous system. Your donation helps continue graduate training in the CN Lab for an INP student by supporting a one-year graduate student fellowship.
